Infant care teacher who slapped and restrained baby for not drinking milk jailed in Singapore

Source: Yahoo News

SINGAPORE -- An infant care teacher who slapped, pushed and restrained a 13-month-old baby for not drinking her milk was sentenced to nine months' jail on Wednesday (17 April) after pleading guilty to one count of ill-treating the child.

The incident took place on 15 March 2023, English daily The Straits Times reported, and was uncovered after the infant's father found a red mark on his baby's face.

The accused - who is currently unemployed - and the preschool cannot be named because of a gag order to protect the identity of the victim.

The 40-year-old teacher, who was then responsible for caring for babies aged two to 18 months old, had tried to feed the infant at about 5.20pm but the baby refused to drink her milk.

The woman tried to force the baby to open her mouth while placing her leg over the infant's hands to restrict movement.

The infant continued to struggle, causing the woman to slap her cheeks hard and force her into a crawling position as she was crying, The Straits Times reported.

Another employee saw that the infant had a red mark on the cheek about 20 minutes later and questioned the accused. However, she chose not to respond, placed an ice pack on the baby's face and went home at 6pm.

At around 6.15pm, the father came to pick up the baby and was told the red mark was caused by a fall from the cot. However, he asked to review the closed-circuit television footage to get to the bottom of the matter.

The accused was informed at around 7pm that the infant's father was upset about the injury and she confessed to her actions.

According to The Straits Times, she was suspended the next day and fired on 20 March 2023. The father then lodged a police report on 28 March, after the preschool informed him about what had happened.

The woman was arrested on 5 December 2023, after police investigations were conducted.

In court, Deputy Public Prosecutor Hidayat Amir said that the offence might have gone unnoticed if not for the red mark, as the victim was unable to tell anyone about the assault and the accused remained silent even when she was asked about it.

Seeking up to 10 months' jail for the accused, DPP Hidayat said that the woman had shown persistent aggression towards the infant and abused the trust and authority that had been given to her as an infant care teacher.

The victim's father was in court as the CCTV footage of the abuse was played, and broke out in tears, The Straits Times reported.

He also shared that the red mark remained visible on the infant's face for a week, and he had not received an apology from the accused for her actions.

"She was just a baby and I cannot fathom how someone could do this to her. Justice was served for my daughter today," he said.

Earlier this year, the Early Childhood Development Agency said in a press release that it had fined childcare operator Kinderland $10,000 for child mismanagement incidents.

The fine came after a former educator at Kinderland @ Woodlands Mart was charged for ill treatment of a child and a former teacher from Kinderland @ Sunshine Place was given a 12-month conditional warning.

The licenses for both centres were also shortened from 36 months to 6 months.