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Domestic helper jailed for pinching and bruising toddler

SINGAPORE — During the times when she was frustrated by her employer’s nine-year-old son, she would take it out on his two-year-old brother by pinching him all over his body.

SINGAPORE — During the times when she was frustrated by her employer’s nine-year-old son, she would take it out on his two-year-old brother by pinching him all over his body.

Fajardo Elizabeth Esquiral’s ill treatment of the toddler went on for 10 months until his mother discovered numerous scars and wounds all over his body.

The 26-year-old domestic helper — who was hired by the boys’ mother in July 2013 — was on Thursday (June 23) convicted and sentenced to six months’ jail for one count of “willfully causing the toddler unnecessary physical pain” under the Children and Young Persons Act.

The court heard that Esquiral, whose main duties were to care for the well-being of the two boys, often got angry and frustrated at the older boy, whom she described as “very naughty and (would) not listen to her”.

She chose to vent her anger on the younger boy because he was “unlikely to be able to report her actions”, the court was told.

Esquiral shared a room with the toddler and pinched him regularly — about three times a week — over a period of 10 months between March 2015 and January this year.

When she was first confronted by the toddler’s mother in January, Esquiral initially claimed she did not notice them, the court heard.

When she was questioned again after the toddler was examined at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, the helper admitted that she was responsible for his injuries, which included scratches all over his body and a mild bruise on his abdomen.

Pleading for a lighter sentence, Esquiral broke down as she told the court that she was the sole breadwinner of her family who lives in the Philippines.

In sentencing her, Principal District Judge Bala Reddy agreed with the prosecution that Esquiral had picked a “defenceless” victim who could not complain and had to “endure all the pain she had caused”.

She could have been jailed up to four years and/or fined S$4,000.

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