A 24-year-old maid has been arrested recently after being caught on video abusing a 5-year-old boy.
The videos of the incident were originally posted to the ‘Childcare in Singapore’ Facebook group last month (12 March). The incident was shared again in the group after recent reports surfaced by several media channels that the identity of the people in the video had been confirmed.
The footage depicted a person walking while carrying a young child, swinging the child, and dropping the child onto the ground at an open field near Block 673C, Edgefield Plains around 10 am.
On that same day, the toddler had complained to his parents about injuries sustained to his front and back, including scratches. He also mentioned that he was thrown on the ground by the maid.
However, Lianhe Wanbao reported that the 24-year-old denied the abuse at the time, claiming that the boy injured himself while rolling around on the field.
The boy’s mother, a 35-year-old housewife named Lisa, decided not to press on with the claims despite having suspicions against the maid who usually brings her son to the playground instead of the field to play.
“My son said the domestic helper told him that there were birds on the field. So he followed her. The domestic helper kept insisting that she did not hurt him, so I did not probe further,” Lisa said.
Two days after the incident (13 April), the abuse was eventually uncovered when the boy’s father stumbled upon the Facebook video. Lisa told the WB reporter that she contacted the video uploader to verify the time and location of the incident as confirmation beforehand.
China Press reported that both parents were shocked to discover that it was their maid and son in the video, prompting them to immediately lodge a police report.
The maid has since been detained by Singaporean police, undergoing further investigations. She denied her actions initially but came clean when she was shown the video.
“I asked her why she did it. But she neither explained nor apologised for her actions. After that, the police handcuffed her and took her away,” Lisa told WB.
Lisa informed the Chinese daily that she engaged the services of a domestic helper in 2018 due to her congestive heart failure. The helper had only been working with them for five months but she was treated like a sister, with Lisa often sharing food with her and cooking together.
Following the incident, Lisa revealed that she has decided to quit her job to take care of her son and 9-year-old daughter. She dared not or wished to hire domestic help as she feared her children being abused again in the future.
Meanwhile, Lisa’s husband is currently working two jobs to provide for the family.
The video of the incident can be viewed here:
