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SINGAPORE: An Indonesian maid who became pregnant by her boyfriend “panicked” after giving birth and abandoned her newborn son in a container by the road.
The 29-year-old woman, who cannot be identified due to gag orders protecting the baby’s identity, was sentenced to five months in jail on Thursday (November 5).
She pleaded guilty via video link from where she was referred to a charge of exposing and abandoning her son.
The court heard that the woman was working as a domestic worker in an unidentified location when she discovered in May 2020 that she was pregnant.
She tried taking pills to abort the baby, but was unsuccessful. On the morning of July 27 this year, she felt contractions while at her employer’s home and gave birth to her son in the bathroom around 1 p.m.
The boy was crying loudly, so she covered his mouth with her hand but didn’t hurt him.
He cut the umbilical cord with scissors, cleaned the boy and wrapped him in a towel before placing him in a paper bag and giving him clean water to drink.
A few hours later, he left the house with the baby because he was afraid his employer would listen to him. He walked around for a while before deciding to place his son in a blue container at Tai Keng Gardens, a location he chose at random, the court heard.
She checked that the container was empty before placing her child inside and placing a small stone between the lid and the container to make sure there was enough air for the child.
He claimed that he had no intention of hurting the boy and hoped a passerby would find him.
At approximately 7.45pm, a resident who lived nearby went out for a smoke and heard a faint sound. His relatives joined him and found the baby in the bin before calling the police.
The baby was taken to the hospital, while his mother was arrested on July 29 and in preventive custody a day later. As of August 19 of this year, the baby was stable, according to court documents.
Deputy Prosecutor Tin Shu Min asked for between six and eight months in jail, acknowledging that the woman took steps to reduce her son’s injuries.
Referring to a case where a woman threw her newborn baby down a garbage dump, Tin said a blue container was not that dangerous in comparison.
LEE: Mother jailed for throwing her newborn baby into the garbage dump in the Bedok HDB block, with the intention of killing him
However, he said that while the risk to the baby was lower in this case, there was still a risk from the possibility of the child choking or throwing materials on him, as well as the risk of not being discovered.
“The seriousness of the offense cannot be overlooked,” Ms Tin said, adding that the baby was unable to fend for himself.
ADDRESSED BY THE CIRCUMSTANCES: DEFENSE
Defense attorney Anand Nalachandran requested no more than 20 weeks in jail, saying his client has been in pretrial detention since July 30 and that matters had to be expedited so that a psychiatric evaluation could not be completed in time.
He said the woman immediately indicated that she wanted to plead guilty and asked the court to consider her circumstances.
“He came to Singapore in 2018. He was working with a family with whom he is happy and liked his employers,” said the lawyer. “She had a relationship with a Bangladeshi that ended in 2020, but later found out she was pregnant.”
She said that she did not know who or where to seek help and only trusted a fellow domestic worker.
“She was so worried that by telling her employer, or anyone else, she would lose her job: they would revoke her pass, they would send her back home and she would not be able to return,” she said.
The attorney added that his client was in a state of panic and confusion and did not receive any medical care during her pregnancy or delivery, and did not intend to harm the baby.
“She was alone during this ordeal,” he said. “It’s almost impossible to imagine being in her place at that moment. I was overwhelmed by the circumstances.
The woman wiped away tears as she listened to the proceedings through an Indonesian Bahasa interpreter.
“His behavior, I think looking at the facts, can only be described as atypical and abnormal,” said his lawyer, adding that the baby is “safe and sound.”
The prosecutor responded to the defense arguments saying that the woman “is not a baby in the forest”, but a 29-year-old mother who had about two months to consider what to do and was waiting for the delivery of the child.
The judge ordered that the prison sentence be moved back to the first date of the preventive detention of the woman.
For exposure and abandonment of her child under the age of 12, the woman could have been imprisoned for up to seven years, fined or both.
