The residential building Cube 8, Thomson Road, Singapore. Photo: Google Maps
The residential building Cube 8, Thomson Road, Singapore. Photo: Google Maps

A married Filipino woman was sentenced to nine months in jail by a Singapore court on Friday for venting her anger on her employer’s 14-month-old son by smothering him with a pillow and hitting him with a kitchen knife in April shortly after a row with a man with whom she was having an affair.

Leslie Ann Belmonte Dieza, 36, who came to Singapore in 2016 as a domestic worker, had served an Australian family for 16 months in a unit of the Cube 8 condominium on Thomson Road by the time the infant boy was mistreated, the Shin Min Daily News reported.

The accused, who was married to a 36-year-old fellow Filipino – who is also working in Singapore, had an extramarital relationship with a man identified only as Raymond.

Between 2pm and 3pm on April 11, after a heated argument with her lover over money during a Facebook video call, Dieza decided to show him what she was “capable” of when angered through videos that showed how she endangered the life of her employer’s son.

In the first 90-second video, the accused was seen pressing the face of the victim on to a mattress and using a pillow to smother him. She also lifted the boy by his hair and threw his head against the pillow. Dieza did not stop even when the boy kept screaming and crying.

Another 35-second video showed the maid hitting the boy’s buttocks with the broad side of a kitchen knife. The accused then sent both clips to Raymond, who was shocked and decided to notify Dieza’s husband with the help of his sister.

The husband rushed to his wife after seeing the videos, but this resulted in another dispute. The husband in the end decided to make a police report given the seriousness of the case and his wife’s unstable mental state.

The boy was sent to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital where he was found with a 1-centimeter-long abrasion on his left heel.

The court learned that the woman had an adjustment disorder, which was one of the reasons for her aggressive behavior. She was also seen crying hysterically and remorsefully while pleading guilty.

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