All About Problematic Maids
-
Hi all,
Here's another article about a maid abusing a baby in Singapore, it's really heart breaking!
Story originated from:
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20110328-270474.html
By Chong Shin Yen
THE videos were heartbreaking to watch.
In one of them, the one-year-old girl was crying while the maid, who was lying next to her on the mattress, kept hitting her tiny body.
When she did not stop crying, the Indonesian maid, Desi Kurnia, now 17, carried her and flung her back onto the mattress.
The cries got louder, so Desi put a pillow over the baby's face. She then placed her leg on the pillow, smothering the little girl as she struggled for air.
As the videos were played in court yesterday, Desi could not bear to watch them. She stood hunched in the dock and buried her face in her hands, sobbing.
Yesterday, the teenager was jailed 33 months after she pleaded guilty to eight charges of ill-treating her employer's daughter. Eleven similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
District Judge Ng Peng Hong said her actions were callous, cruel and wicked.
The offences were committed between Nov 30 and Dec 4, 2009, at her employer's flat in the east. Desi had been working for the family for about a month.
There is a court order not to identify the young victim.
The eight videos relating to the charges she had pleaded guilty to were shown in court.
They were filmed by several cameras that had been installed in the flat. The footage was in colour and came with audio.
Desi's age was initially given as 25. But investigations after her arrest showed that she was only 16 at the time of the offences.
As her lawyer, Mr Loo Eng Teck, told the court, Desi herself is still a child.
Other than the baby, she was also looking after the girl's two-year-old sister while their parents were at work.
Mr Loo said the incidents were triggered by the baby's incessant crying and Desi had felt frustrated.
He said the teen had difficulties getting the children to take a nap and did not know how to coax them to drink their milk. She also had no idea how to pacify them when they cried.
The court heard that Desi, who was transferred from another household, started working for the family on Oct 10, 2009. Her duties were to take care of the two girls on top of doing the household chores.
The children's mother had told her not to discipline the baby but to tell her if the baby misbehaved.
Some time in November, the baby's parents installed several CCTV cameras in the flat. This was after the baby's maternal grandmother told them that Desi was lazy and had hit the baby.
On Dec 6, the baby's mother noted how rude Desi was when she was instructed to do housework.
Suspicious, the parents viewed the CCTV recordings and were shocked to see what she had done.
The mother immediately confronted Desi, who denied that she had disciplined the baby. The father lodged a police report on the same day.
In another video, filmed on Dec 2, 2009, Desi was seen preparing milk in the kitchen when the baby crawled towards her crying.
Instead of picking up the little girl, the maid kicked her and walked away.
The baby wailed loudly and crawled desperately after Desi.
She crawled from the kitchen to the living room, then to the bedroom, back to the living room and finally to the kitchen, following Desi wherever the latter went. But Desi ignored her.
Finally, the maid went back into the bedroom and closed the door, preventing the baby from entering.
She stood behind the door for about a minute, not knowing what to do. The baby's wails could still be heard behind the door. The clip ended at this point.
In another clip, the baby was left crying alone in the bedroom. She could not leave the room as the door was shut.
The girl could barely stand properly as she pounded the door with her little fists, trying to attract Desi's attention.
Again, her pleas were ignored.
When Desi finally opened the door about a minute later, she pushed the wailing baby down hard onto a mattress near the door. She slapped the girl repeatedly on her buttocks and arms, scolding her at the same time.
She shook the girl violently before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
On Dec 7, a day after the videos were viewed, the baby was taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital for a check-up. She was found to have four bruises on her legs.
In a victim impact statement submitted to the court, the baby's mother said her daughter has not been able to sleep well since the incidents.
She has constant nightmares and wakes up crying.
The girl also avoids interacting with people and is scared to go into her bedroom, where the abuse took place.
Pressing for a deterrent sentence, Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Woon Kwong said the baby was completely defenceless and totally reliant on Desi, her caregiver, for her well-being.
He added that it was fortunate her injuries were not serious and that Desi's acts of abuse were caught within a week after the cameras were installed.
Said Mr Wong: \"The acts of abuse were carried out when the victim cried out for attention, which is perfectly normal for a one-year-old.\"
Desi is appealing against her sentence and is out on bail.
For ill-treating a child under the Children and Young Persons Act, she could have been jailed four years and fined $4,000 for each charge.
This article was first published in The New Paper. -
A maid to take care of 2 very young kids and on top of that, have to do chores? You must be kidding.
And such young maid? this is called exploitation. How could a young maid be able to take such a heavy task? Sometimes, even a mother couldn’t do such job, let alone a stranger who only earn $400 the most? -
Sad and scary. But fortunately, it's being discovered before anything serious really happened.
I'm puzzled though.....Was the maid agency aware of the job requirements? Was there any advice given to the couple? Are there any adult supervision around especially when the maid is a transfer case + new + 2 young hopeless child who can't voice out anything. Frankly, I think the age given by the agency are generally not real.....the 23s are usually younger, the 30s/40s are normally older.....and even family info are usually fake. My previous 3 maids have all confessed after being with me for 1+ year.....
My first maid was supposed to be 18, but was 2 years younger. When she was scolded by my in-law, she complained....i am the youngest child, nobody scolds me, at home I dun even have to do anything, how can ah mah scold me. ?!?! On another occasion, she laughed when my 2.5 yo son fell down in the bathroom while she was bathing him. I saw and questioned her, guess what. She admitted she's happy he fell cos she's angry with him :x. So when she wanted to renew her contract, I didn't. 2nd maid used her fist to hit my son's back when he refused to admit defeat at a game. Fortunately my son was already 4yo and when I did my routine checks eg. 'how is she treating you, does she hit you etc', he could tell me simply. So I warned the maid that she's not supposed to use force on them nor discipline, just tell me and I'll do it.
All these happen over minor issues with adults around, can you imagine what happens with no one to supervise?
Mummies with domestic helper, pls do keep a look out for signs of fear from your child. FYI, things don't just happen at home. I have on numerous times, warned other people's maids. Many of them esp. those ferrying children to school would just be talking on their phone oblivious to surrounding dangers while the young child follows behind or running around. And when they walk on roads, the maids are on the inside while the child is on the outside!!! Or on rainy days, I find the maid fully covered by umbrella while the child is half wet!!!!
I must admit, a maid's life is actually pretty pitiful actually. And if I have to lead a life like them, I'll be very stressed too and dun know how I would behave too. Also, many are ignorant and need instructions.
So while we learn to treat them better, we still need to be vigilant as it's our own children after all. -
I find the punishment on the maid is too light.
The little child had been traumatised by the maid torture and somehow or rather it will affect her growth.
Underage Maid had always been a topic in most of the forums and why ain’t MOM taking action ? This is not the first case of children been abused by maid. -
We try never to leave the maid alone with DS unless absolutely necessary, although our helper has been with us for 3 years now and we are beginning to trust her more.
When we go out, we always ask her if she’d like to join us because if she doesn’t she can have some time to herself. She does not have an off day and we do not allow her to have a hp. So we do take her out with us and let her order what she wants to eat as a form of indulgence to keep her happy.
When she is left with the child at in laws place if DH and I need to go out, my in laws take over taking care of my DS so that she can be occupied with other things.
Its true that they they are usually younger - my helper was 19 when she first started working with us, though the agency claimed that she was 24.
Agree with smurf that if we cannot handle two young kids, then we cannot expect a maid, and a young and unmarried one to do so.
From my experience with my maid, those that come from a stable family background will not give any major problems. She is close to her family and keeps in touch with them and she is relatively honest. Of course I close one eye when she uses the home phone when she is alone because as long as she does her work and takes good care of my son, why should I admonish her for something petty like that. -
LKVM:
Yes I agree with you 100% :hi5:autumnbronze:
We try never to leave the maid alone with DS unless absolutely necessary, although our helper has been with us for 3 years now and we are beginning to trust her more.
Autumn, for ppl like us who are FTWM have no choice but to be dependent on the maid to look after our kids so its very much required that the maid atleast be patient with the child...if there is some there at home to supervise then too good but its not possible always...
I refer to what I wrote above a 'luxury/privilege' because I am a SAHM.
But I also believe strongly that for FTWM, even if they have to leave their kids with the helpers, they do ensure that they keep a tab via phones, CCTV etc ... because their kids' well-being comes first.
Whatever works best for all of us .... there's no hard and fast rule that things have to be done in a certain way with helpers :celebrate: -
AN INDONESIAN maid who wrote in her diary that she was happy working for a family of four here went on a rampage with a knife and chopper, using them against her employer?s seven-year-old daughter.
This was in 2009, when Kumaeroh, who goes by only one name, was eight months into her job. She was preparing the girl for school on Sept 23 when she snapped without provocation, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and started stabbing the child.
Then she took a chopper and slashed the girl on her wrist.
On Monday, Kumaeroh, now 26, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted culpable homicide and was jailed eight years by the High Court.
The maximum penalty is 15 years.
The victim in the attack, who cannot be named, is now in Primary 3. She has recovered, but still neither eats well nor is comfortable with strangers, said her mother, aged 42.
Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_689531.html -
:yikes: :scared:
thanks for sharing! I have heard a lot these kind of incidents.Thats why I don't want maids. :scared: :scared: -
:yikes:
-
Yeah, read it. Shocking. Poor little girl.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login