Maid arrested for hurting 16-month-old girl
Published on 23rd January, 2020
A maid has been arrested for hurting a 16-month-old toddler under her care by putting the baby girl's hand into a hot pot on a stove.
Police arrested the 30-year-old domestic helper on Jan 15 at her employer's home at Block 992B Buangkok Link, in Hougang.
Details of the incident surfaced on Tuesday after the baby's mother, Ms Amy Low, 40, uploaded on Facebook a 46-second video recording from a closed-circuit television camera in her home.
The footage shows the maid allegedly dipping the toddler's left hand into a pot on the stove repeatedly. The baby girl is heard crying in the video. The video has since been viewed more than 218,000 times.
Ms Low also posted pictures of her baby's swollen and scalded hand.
Speaking to The Straits Times yesterday, Ms Low, an accountant, who also has an eight-year-old daughter, said the incident happened on Jan 14. "My whole body was shaking when I saw the recording," she said.
"(Since the incident), every night my daughter cries and cries non-stop, and she's too young to speak, so we don't know if she's having nightmares or still in so much pain," she added.
She took her daughter to a clinic nearby, but was told by the doctor that the burns were too serious and she needed emergency care. They were then referred to KK Women's and Children's Hospital, where the baby was treated for second-degree burns but was not hospitalised.
Ms Low said the maid, who is from Myanmar, was employed on Dec 7 last year. In the Facebook post, Ms Low wrote in Chinese that the maid had initially claimed that the toddler had accidentally touched the hot cooking pot in the kitchen.
However, after Ms Low viewed the video, she confronted the maid, who told her that she had hurt the child so she could go home.
Ms Low called the police and the maid was arrested, she told The Straits Times. The police are investigating the incident as voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous means.
First published by Jean Lau
Read more at https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/maid-arrested-for-hurting-16-month-old-girl