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A babysitter and former nurse, who is currently serving a seven-year jail term for poisoning two babies, has received another four months' jail for abusing her two daughters since 2006.
On the day of her arrest, she had slammed a door on her eldest daughter's foot multiple times, and used an eyebrow razor to slash at her daughter's thigh.
Sa'adiah Jamari, 41, is currently serving a seven-year jail term that was meted out to her in 2020 for giving the two children she was babysitting a cocktail of drugs, including Xanax, diazepam and orphenadrine.
Sa'adiah had been physically and verbally abusive to her two daughters since they were six years old. They are currently 20 and 21.
After each assault, she threatened to send the girls to the girls’ home and to make them homeless if they reported the assaults to the police.
Background
At the time of the offences, Sa'adiah was in a relationship with Looi Chong Heng a medical locum doctor.
Looi, whose first name is Peter, had been acting as a stepfather to Sa'adiah's daughters, and provided financial assistance to the family.
He was also able provide Sa'adiah with access to medical drugs.
Sa'adiah has been suffering from major depressive disorder and bereavement or grief reaction. She was also found to have possible dependence on sleeping pills and benzodiazepine.
Abused daughters
Her younger daughter had made attempts to report the matter to her school counsellor, but matters escalated when the counsellor spoke to Sa'adiah.
She made empty promises to her daughters, saying that she would change and no longer be violent towards the girls.
She claimed to be violent towards them out of love.
However, due to her bad temper, she was unable to change her ways.
On Jun. 5, 2021, Sa'adiah had asked Looi for money, but he refused, stating that he had just given her an allowance of S$500 for that week.
He was afraid of giving her additional money which she might have spent on sleep medication, which she was dependent on.
She grew upset with him and scolded him over the phone. An argument soon erupted.
Some time after the argument, she scolded both her daughters for being useless, and threw items on the floor.
Her daughters cleared up the mess and returned to their respective rooms.
Sa'adiah barged into her elder daughter's room and told her to clean up the space.
The mother saw her child using her handphone and snatched it from her.
Her elder daughter begged for her phone to be returned as she needed it to submit work to her lecturer.
Sa'adiah refused to give it back.
Her daughter chased Sa'adiah to her bedroom, and in the tussle, the mother had slammed the door on her daughter's foot several times.
Her elder daughter let out a loud scream, and the younger daughter advised her sister to leave the house to avoid escalating the situation.
Sa'adiah them came out of her room and charged at her elder daughter, pulling her hair, kicking her two or three times in the stomach and punching her hand and left shoulder area eight or nine times.
Her younger daughter discretely recorded a video of the altercation, which was played in court.
Sa'adiah then used a clothes hanger to hit her eldest daughter until the hanger bent.
Her younger daughter felt like this was the last straw, and ran out of the house to call the police.
She waited on the fourth floor of the public housing block, and stated that she could still hear her sister's screams from there.
Meanwhile, Sa'adiah took an eyebrow razor and cut her eldest daughter on her thigh.
She then grabbed a pair of scissors with the intention of causing hurt to her daughter further, but her daughter snatched the pair of scissors and threw it out of the window.
The mother asked her child to retrieve the scissors from downstairs.
Her elder daughter left the unit and did not dare to return.
She waited at the staircase for the police to arrive.
Poisoned two babies under her care
Sa'adiah had previously been sentenced to seven years' jail for poisoning two infants who she was babysitting.
The parent's of the children, who were unrelated to each other, had hired Sa'adiah, who was a registered nurse at that time, to babysit their children.
When the children were returned to them they appeared to be drowsy and lethargic.
The worried parents brought them to the hospital, and drugs were subsequently found in their system.
The drugs found in their system included Alprazolam, also known as Xanax, meant for anxiety; orphenadrine, a muscle relaxant; zolpidem, to aid sleep; oxazepam, for anxiety and acute alcohol withdrawal; and diazepam, a benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal or muscle spasms.
Sa'adiah had prescriptions for some of the drugs, while Looi was able to supply her with additional drugs.
Combined sentence of seven years and four months
For poisoning the infants under her care, Sa'adiah was given a sentence of seven years' jail in December 2020, and is currently serving the sentencing.
For causing hurt to her daughters, she was given an additional four months' jail.
The prosecutor called for five to six months' jail for the offences.
She said the assault was sustained and vicious, with a significant breach of trust as the accused was the victim's mother and sole caretaker.
While Sa'adiah was suffering from major depressive disorder, an Institute of Mental Health report issued in April 2021 stated that she was no longer depressed.
This was attributed to the fact that Sa'adiah was more concerned over court proceedings instead, such as sentencing and being in prison, which resulted in insomnia.
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