Indonesian carer jailed a week for abuse of elderly woman

A Singaporean court jailed a 26-year-old Indonesian carer on Wednesday for one week after she pleaded guilty to hitting her employer with a shower head.

The Indonesian woman, known only as Mudrikah, was hired by the victim, Ng Chat Heng, 69, to do domestic work in an apartment of Block 121 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3, the Shin Min Daily News reported.

But in April last year Mudrikah got angry with the elderly woman because she did not cooperate with her.

The court learned that the assault happened at around 8am on April 4, 2018, when the worker was helping the elderly woman take a shower. Heng tried to get the shower head to clean herself, but the victim’s niece had said she should not allow that, as Heng had weak hands and her niece feared the older woman could fall and hurt herself.

The Indonesian woman got frustrated as the elderly Heng continued to move around by herself, prompting Mudrikah to grab the shower head from the victim and use it to hit the victim on the left wrist.

The incident came into light three days later as the victim’s niece visited Ng at noon and noticed bruises and a small cut on her aunt’s left wrist.

She was then taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where the staff filed a police report later that day, after discovering that the elderly woman had been hit by her carer.

According to the medical report dated May 7, 2018, Ng was found to have extensive bruising over her left arm and wrist.

Meanwhile, the court also heard that between March 11 and April 7 last year, the victim had her hair pulled by the worker as punishment.

Mudrikah, who was represented by a lawyer, expressed remorse for her acts but said she would prefer to go to prison as she might not have the financial ability to pay a fine.