After hearing her baby crying loudly from another room, a mother in Singapore decided to check her home's CCTV to see if something was amiss.

What she saw was her domestic worker forcefully hitting the one-month-old infant repeatedly.

On Oct. 21, Lana Ngizatul Mona, a 26-year-old Indonesian citizen, was sentenced to nine months in prison after pleading guilty to one charge of ill-treating a child reported CNA.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Lana was employed to take care of the woman's four children and to complete general household chores.

Hit the baby thrice

The incident occurred on Apr. 30, 2020, at about 7:30am, with CCTV footage showing the domestic helper hitting the baby on the back with her wrist.

The caused the baby to cry before Lana hit him again, twice using her clenched fist to strike the infant's back.

According to court documents, all three blows were forceful and had impact audible from the CCTV footage.

After reviewing the footage, the infant's mother lodged a police report, and Lana later admitted that she had hit the baby to vent her stress.

The child suffered a bruise on his right shoulder from the incident.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei asked for a sentence of nine months in prison, citing a previous case which involved an offender striking the buttocks of a 21-month-old child with his fists.

"A sentence of at least nine months’ imprisonment would be appropriate to reflect the harm caused to the victim and the accused’s culpability in abusing a helpless child that had been entrusted to her care," submitted Tan.

For ill-treating a child by subjecting him to physical abuse, Lana could have been jailed for up to eight years, fined up to S$8,000, or both.

Top image from Julien Pouplard via Unsplash