GEORGE TOWN, March 23 — Indonesian Ellis Andreyani was today sentenced to be jailed for two years by the Sessions Court here after she admitted to physically harming a one-year-old boy under her care last year.
The 47-year-old woman is married to a Malaysian and has been living in Malaysia for seven years.
“The court accepts your guilty plea so you are convicted of the offence,” Sessions Court judge Mazdi Abdul Hamid said when pronouncing the sentence.
Her jail sentence is to start from the date of her arrest on December 8 last year.
Ellis was charged under Section 31 (1) (a) of the Child Act 2001 with causing physical injury to a child in her care in a house at Taman Utama Persiaran Minden, Gelugor here in November last year sometime between 10am and 3pm.
The maximum penalty under the law is 20 years in jail, RM20,000 fine, or both upon conviction.
Ellis was unrepresented in court.
She apologised for her action and asked for the minimal fine to be imposed.
“I am sorry, I will not do this again,” she told the judge.
During hearing earlier, the court was shown a video footage of the physical abuse Ellis perpetrated on the child after the charge against her was read out. She was seen slapping the boy.
Ellis admitted that she was the woman in the video.
Asked how she pled, she replied in Malay: “Salah”.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Rais Imran Hamid had asked the court to hand down a deterrent sentence especially when it is a public interest case involving a child.
“The accused, as a carer, should be taking care of the child instead of abusing him,” he told the court.
According to the facts of the case, the video was recorded by Ellis’ step granddaughter. Ellis’ stepdaughter — the mother to the video recorder — later saw the clip, which also showed the accused hitting several other children under her care then with her bare hands at about 1.15pm on December 2 last year.
Ellis’ stepdaughter lodged a police report based on the video and Ellis was arrested on December 8.
Last week, several video clips of Ellis slapping and physically abusing the toddler spread on Twitter and the person who posted the videos had accused the police of not taking action in the case.
The police has since denied the accusations by stating that the accused was arrested and remanded for six days to assist in investigations into the case.
Ellis will also be deported after serving her jail sentence under Section 6(3) of the Immigration Act for not having valid travel documents.
