A 33-year-old maid in Singapore who was hired to care for twin babies bit one of them out of frustration when the toddler refused to go to sleep, and now she is serving jail time.
The domestic help, identified as Masita Khoridaturochmah, was sentenced to six months' jail on Tuesday for one charge of ill-treating the one-year-old girl by willfully causing her unnecessary physical pain, The Straits Times reported.
A court in Singapore heard that Ms Masita, an Indonesian national, started working for the victim's mother in 2021. Her primary duties included taking care of her employer's twin babies, as well as household chores.
On May 26, 2022, Ms Masita's employer left home to pick up her older daughter from preschool. Ms Masita was left at home with the twin infants, who were aged 14 months at the time.
This is when the maid attempted to put them to sleep, however, after about a half-hour, she lost patience with one of the babies because she thought the victim was keeping her from preparing dinner. Ms Masita then bit the little girl once on her left forearm, leaving a bruise.
When the child's mother returned home about half an hour later, she went to cook dinner for her children and fed them. While preparing the baby girl for bed, the mother saw a bruise in the shape of a bite mark on the baby's arm. The woman suspected that Ms Masita had bitten the little girl and questioned her about it.
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The 33-year-old initially denied doing so but eventually acknowledged her behaviour. According to The Straits Times, Ms Masita even knelt down and apologised to her employer, but the child's mother reported the matter to the police.
The prosecutor claimed that the victim was particularly vulnerable and especially young, and Ms Masita had abused the position of trust she was placed in. According to him, Ms Masita hurt the victim "willfully," and the offence was committed because she was upset that the victim wasn't nodding off as quickly as she would have liked.
District Judge Tan Jen Tse also observed that Ms Masita had committed the offence out of annoyance in a singular instance of abuse involving a single act and had shown regret shortly after. The judge agreed to Ms Masita's request to postpone her sentence for a week so she could put her affairs in order, including contacting her family in Indonesia over arrangements for her return after her imprisonment.
The 33-year-old is now expected to surrender herself at the State Courts on Tuesday in order to begin serving her sentence.
