The police have arrested a foreign domestic worker for scalding a 16-month-old toddler under her care.
The 30-year-old maid from Myanmar was apprehended last week (15 Jan) at her employer’s home at Block 992B Buangkok Link.
According to Stomp, the police were alerted to a case of voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous means at the aforementioned location at around 10.50am.
Further investigations are ongoing following the arrest.
Details of the horrific incident came to light on Tuesday (21 Jan) after Facebook user Amy Low Mei Liang posted a series of harrowing images of the injuries that her daughter suffered from the incident – which took place on 14 January.
Ms Low also uploaded a video recording from the CCTV camera installed in her home. The 46-second footage shows the maid carrying the toddler while cooking in the kitchen, before dipping the toddler’s left hand into a boiling pot on the stove several times. The child can be heard crying in the video.
Watch the video here:
In the Facebook post, Ms Low also recounted the incident when her two daughters were left at home with the maid while she and her husband were out.
“The maid was at home with both my daughters. At 5.20pm, my 8-year-old daughter called my husband up and told him that my 16-month-old daughter had suffered a burnt. We were shocked and rushed our girl to a nearby clinic, but the doctor thought it was too serious a burn wound hence referred us to hospital a & e instead.”
Ms Low told Stomp that she and her family were at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital from 8pm to 2am.
She noted that her 16-month-old daughter received outpatient treatment and her wounds are currently in bandages.
Speaking to The Straits Times (ST) earlier today (22 Jan), Ms Low said that her “whole body was shaking” when she saw the CCTV footage.
“[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 also revealed to ST that the maid – who came from Myanmar – was employed on 7 December last year.
Coming back to the Facebook post, Ms Low mentioned that the maid – who had been instructed never to bring the kids into the kitchen – initially claimed that the incident was an “accident”.
The maid explained that as she was carrying the toddler while cooking in the kitchen, the little girl accidentally touched the boiling pot.
Ms Low said she believed what the maid told her despite the doctor at the hospital expressing some doubts on the cause of the burn wounds.
Oddly enough, early the next morning, the maid packed up her belongings and demanded on returning to the agency. Ms Low assured that no one blames her for the incident, and insisted that she stay.
Ms Low then spoke to the maid’s agent, who simply noted that he would be sending someone over to pick up the maid.
At that juncture, Ms Low could not help but to suspect something was amiss. Hence, she decided to check the CCTV footage while waiting for the maid to be picked up.
“And what I saw was horrifying,” she remarked.
“The maid, she did it on purpose!! !! It was never an accident! She took my daughter’s hand and dipped her hand inside a boiling pot.”
She immediately filed a police report.
While waiting for the police, she notified the agent on her discovery. The agent was allegedly agitated and called for the maid to be returned to the agency right away.
Subsequently, Ms Low confronted the maid, in which the maid confessed to have hurt the child just so she could go home.
“She said she wants to go home, she said that her friends taught her to do it, so that she could go home,” she retailed.
“And when I asked if the agent was also involved, she said yes – he said that I could go home if I do this! How horrifying!”
At the end of the Facebook post – which has garnered over 18,000 shares at the time of writing – Ms Low stated that she has no intention on disclosing further information about the agency. She did, however, urge members of the public to always “keep a close eye on your domestic helpers”.
