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SINGAPORE: An Indonesian maid who hit a one-month-old baby so hard that it could be heard on closed-circuit television camera footage did so to “vent her stress,” the court heard on Wednesday (October 21) .
Lana Ngizatul Mona, 26, was sentenced to nine months in jail Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of child abuse.
The court heard that Lana had been working for the victim’s mother for approximately two months when the incident occurred. She was tasked with caring for her employer’s four children and completing household chores.
At approximately 7:30 am on April 30 this year, the victim’s mother was inside her room when she heard her baby crying loudly in the living room.
He checked the images on the closed circuit television camera installed in the living room and saw Lana hitting her son three times. Lana, who was sitting in a chair, carried the baby in her arms while feeding him milk.
In the pictures, Lana is seen using her wrist to hit the boy once on the back, causing him to cry. He then used his fist to hit the baby two more times on his back, causing him to cry again.
“The three blows were forceful and had an audible impact,” the prosecutor said. “The defendant admitted to hitting the victim to relieve her stress.”
The boy’s mother took her son to the hospital that day and they found him with a 2 cm by 2 cm bruise on his shoulder caused by Lana’s blows.
Deputy Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei requested at least nine months in jail, saying that the force of the blows was such that they could be heard in the video footage and caused bruising.
The sentence was appropriate to reflect the harm done to the child and “the defendant’s guilt in abusing a defenseless child who had been entrusted to his care,” Ms. Tan said.
Lana, who cried during the hearing, asked for a light sentence in order to return to her family. She said she was sorry and had a child to support.
For mistreating a child by subjecting him to physical abuse, she could have been imprisoned for up to eight years, fined up to S $ 8,000, or both.
