Helper in S'pore gets 22 weeks' jail for kicking, throwing, pinching 15-month-old child

An Indonesian helper in Singapore was found to have repeatedly abused a 15-month-old toddler she was caring for because he would not go to sleep.

Cameras installed in the house caught her kicking, throwing, pinching him, and pulling his hair, among other abusive behaviour.

Norfitasari, 33, faced four counts of voluntarily causing hurt to someone under the age of 14.

On Jan. 26, she pleaded guilty to three of them, and was sentenced to 22 weeks in jail.

Shared a bedroom

The boy's grandfather hired Norfitasari in June 2024 to take care of the boy's daily needs, according to court documents cited by Shin Min Daily News.

Her duties included feeding him and putting him to sleep every night. She shared a bedroom with the boy.

The boy's aunt, grandparents, and the aunt's boyfriend also lived in the same house.

To check on the boy's safety when he slept, the family had installed a baby monitor in his bedroom.

Some time after Norfitasari moved in, the family realised that she would often cover the camera with toys, preventing them from seeing what was happening in the room clearly.

However, they did not investigate the matter further at the time.

Later, after re-installing the baby monitor on the bedroom wall, they began to see Norfitasari behaving abusively in the footage.

The abuses

The four abusive incidents Norfitasari was charged with happened between Mar. 20 and Apr. 1, 2025, when the boy was 15 months old.

They all took place in the house at night when she and the boy were alone, according to Shin Min.

One night, when the boy kept moving on the bed around 10:25pm, she hit his bottom, grabbed him, and threw him on the bed.

On another night, after he touched her leg, she kicked him in the head and neck, pushing him to the other end of the bed.

After such incidents, the boy would be found with scratch marks on his face, fingers, and feet.

Other suspicious incidents

The family also noticed once that his fingers were scalded by hot porridge.

It happened in October 2024, and Norfitasari claimed that the boy had suddenly rushed forward and reached his hands into the hot porridge.

The family did not investigate further, but decided to change the CCTV cameras in the living room to one that would capture the entire area.

They got suspicious again in March 2025, when they believed the boy had fallen and hit his head, but Norfitasari did not help him, and denied that the fall happened.

The court said that due to the boy's young age, he did not have the verbal ability to ask for help.

Finally on Apr. 1, 2025, the boy's aunt made a police report, claiming that the helper had been abusing her nephew.

The police arrived past 1am that night to arrest Norfitasari.

Lost control

During the police investigation, Norfitasari admitted that she would lose control due to exhaustion and hit the boy when he got agitated or refused to sleep.

She added that she needed to support her own children and would not be able to work and earn an income during the investigations.

She asked for leniency and said she wished to apologise to the victim.

The prosecution called for a sentence of eight months in prison, arguing that the offences could likely have been covered up because the victim was unable to speak.

Heartbroken

After the sentencing, Shin Min spoke to the victim's grandmother, who said she was heartbroken to find out about such abuse from the helper who had been caring for her grandson since he was only about four months old.

"She herself has a son of a similar age to my grandson," the grandmother added. "I initially thought she would be more caring to the child, and never imagined she would be so brutal."

According to the grandmother, before her arrest, Norfitasari still claimed to the police that she was only playing around with the boy.

She has also not apologised to the family in person.

The family has since hired another helper, but having been shaken by this experience, they would try as much as possible to keep a watch over the boy to prevent further incidents.

Top images from Shin Min and Canva