SINGAPORE, Aug 25 — Hired to do household chores and care for two girls, including feeding a toddler at night, a domestic worker from Indonesia ended up abusing the younger child when no one was looking. The toddler’s father later uncovered her misdeeds through a surveillance camera set up at home.
Sri Eha Santika Sari, 29, admitted to ill-treating the toddler on at least five occasions and was jailed for 10 months on one charge of voluntarily causing hurt. Another charge related to endangering life or the personal safety of others through a rash act was taken into consideration for sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sruthi Boppana told the court that Sri Eha was hired in December 2020 to look after two girls, then aged five years and 22 months, as well as to do household chores.
She was also responsible for the younger child’s night-time routine, including feeding her and putting her to sleep.
DPP Sruthi said that the employers had installed a surveillance camera within the child’s room and the toddler’s father was viewing the live feed from the camera through his phone on Aug 28 last year.
That was when he witnessed Sri Eha handling his daughter roughly.
A clip of the incident, which was played in court, showed Sri Eha grabbing the girl by her arm and thigh and swinging her forcefully onto the mattress.
On seeing this, the father confronted Sri Eha about her behaviour, but she denied any wrongdoing, DPP Sruthi said.
This led the man to retrieve and review all the surveillance footage available, and he uncovered other instances in which the domestic worker had treated his daughter roughly.
These clips were similarly played in court, and it showed the woman at various times flicking the girl’s ear, slapping her face, pulling her hair, and pushing her forcefully onto the mattress, among other acts. — TODAY
