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Infant-care teacher admits abusing 1-year-old child, left extensive bruise on his back

SINGAPORE — After an infant-care teacher at a preschool rained several blows on a one-year-old child under her care, she tried to avoid suspicion by asking his mother if he had “very sensitive skin” and claiming that she had patted him to sleep too hard.

Infant-care teacher admits abusing 1-year-old child, left extensive bruise on his back
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  • A preschool teacher hit a toddler many times, smothered him with a cushion, held him up in the air and shook him
  • She tried to come up with reasons to the boy’s mother about how his skin may be sensitive when a bruise appeared
  • The infant’s parents made a police report afterwards
  • The teacher is set to be sentenced in March

SINGAPORE — After an infant-care teacher at a preschool rained several blows on a one-year-old child under her care, she tried to avoid suspicion by asking his mother if he had “very sensitive skin” and claiming that she had patted him to sleep too hard.

The boy suffered extensive bruising over his back as a result of what the teacher did.

On Friday (Feb 18), the 54-year-old woman — who appeared in court in a wheelchair — pleaded guilty to ill-treating a child under the Children and Young Persons Act.

Another similar charge will be taken into consideration for sentencing on March 17, in relation to her flicking the boy’s ear and roughly rubbing his face two weeks earlier.

She cannot be named due to a court order to protect the boy’s identity.

The court heard that the teacher was entrusted with the care of children aged between two and 18 months. She would look after and feed them, change their diapers and lead them in educational play activities.

She struck the boy on the afternoon of Dec 24 in 2019 while in the preschool located in the northern region of Singapore. This included:

  • Hitting him on the back with one hand at least 14 times
  • Hitting him on the back with both hands at least eight times
  • Adjusting his legs in a rough manner
  • Covering his head with a pillow at least once
  • Pressing his face into a cushion by pushing his head down
  • Shaking him by the arms roughly before slamming him to the ground face-up
  • Slapping his chest and cheek multiple times

He cried throughout the ordeal but she ignored this, the court heard.

Closed-circuit television footage of the abuse was played in court, which showed her leaving the boy lying on the ground with his head under a cushion for about half a minute. Other toddlers were also present.

In the immediate aftermath, she observed a big red patch was visibly forming on the boy’s back. She then saw an hour later that it was turning blue.

Realising that the boy’s mother would surely notice the injuries, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Gerald Tan told the court that she “pre-emptively sought to divert” the other woman’s suspicions.

She then asked the mother over WhatsApp text messages if the boy had “very sensitive skin”, apologised for patting him to sleep a little too hard and said that his skin looked like it was “having an outbreak”.

By doing this, she tried to characterise the injuries as having arisen from the boy’s purported skin sensitivity, as well as accidental force on her part.

The boy's mother took him to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital later that evening, where he was found to have sustained a bruise over his back measuring about 13cm by 8cm.

His parents then viewed closed-circuit television recordings of her abusive acts and filed a police report on Dec 31, 2019.

The preschool has since paid for the boy's hospital visit fees of about S$140.

‘GUILT AND SHAME FROM ACTIONS’

In seeking 12 months’ jail, DPP Tan said that the teacher had subjected the toddler to “cruel and unwarranted abuse, but he noted that the injury was not permanent.

In mitigation, the woman's lawyer Azri Imran Tan from IRB Law said that she would be punished not only with imprisonment but by “guilt, ignominy and shame for her actions”.

She would likely not be able to teach in a preschool again and this would be a bitter pill for her to swallow, given her passion for teaching and children. Many of her students and parents continue to be in contact with her to this day, Mr Tan added.

The defence counsel, who asked for not more than six months’ jail, said that his client had a good relationship with the boy’s family before the offence.

After the incident, she sent a text message to his mother where she apologised and said that she never meant to hurt him. She also said that she would “face up to whatever the school decide on me” and was “very disappointed” in herself.

The mother then assured her that it was okay and said that it was “fine, it’s just bruises”.

“While at the material time she felt comforted as it appeared that the victim’s mother had forgiven her, she only feels disillusioned now,” Mr Tan told the court.

He added that his client had “no good explanation” for what she did to the child, and did not intend to give one because she “finds her own actions inexplicable”.

Separately, Mr Tan said that the teacher came to court in a wheelchair due to a recent total knee replacement surgery, and she is the sole caregiver of her aged mother with dementia.

District Judge Shaifuddin Saruwan adjourned the case after saying that he needed time to think about the sentence.

For ill-treatment of a child, the teacher could be jailed for up to four years or fined up to S$4,000, or punished with both.

Related topics

court crime child abuse abuse preschool infant care teacher

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