Relationships between helpers and employers can be complicated if either party has ill-natured intentions.
Sometimes, employers are caught abusing their helpers when the latter isn’t performing up to expectations. But at times, helpers land themselves in hot water too by committing crimes.
Recently, a helper received a jail term of three months and one week for voyeurism and theft. The charges resulted from her recording herself changing her employer’s son’s clothes and uploading the clip onto TikTok. In addition, she stole S$50 as well.
The helper defended her actions in court, stating that she took the video to keep a memento of her employer’s son.
TODAY reports that on Tuesday (19 Jul), Rike Kusnul Kotimah pleaded guilty to one charge of theft and another of voyeurism. State courts took another charge of distributing a voyeuristic recording into consideration at the time of sentencing.
Rike started her employment on 11 Mar and, shortly after, requested a transfer, which her employer agreed to on 14 Apr.
Her employer then checked Rike’s phone to ensure that there were no images of her household. Then, she found a photo of a S$50 note in front of her husband’s pants.
Upon confronting her, Rike admitted that she had taken the S$50 while doing the laundry in April. She attributed it to curiosity about Singapore dollar notes and said she put it back where she found it.
Rike claimed that she later returned to her employer’s bedroom to steal the note and use it for personal expenses.
Upon her admission of theft, her employer then filed a police report on 14 Apr.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), during the investigation, police discovered a video of the employer’s four-year-old son getting changed by Rike on her phone.
The 18-second footage showed Rike changing the child’s pants and exposing his genitals. She then uploaded it to TikTok with the following caption:
Condition for a domestic worker to be successful: personal necessities borne by the employer, food and date borne by employer, no off day, no Shoppee [sic], whatever things I can request from employer and just believe it, go back to Indonesia with a bag full of money, not a bag full of dirty clothes!
Rike claimed in court that she had taken the video as a memento.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Alexandria Shamini Joseph asked for a sentence of three months and one week.
She pointed out that Rike had purposefully taken a video of herself changing the victim at his home, a place he trusted to have a certain level of privacy.
Rike faced a jail term for the theft charge of up to seven years and a fine.
As for the charge of voyeurism, she could have received a jail term of up to two years, a fine or a combination of the two.
The younger members of our community are often the most vulnerable as well. This incident of having a child get their trust betrayed by someone they should feel safe around becomes even more troubling.
While the helper could’ve been telling the truth about keeping a memento, she should’ve chosen a more appropriate moment of caring for her employer’s son, such as feeding or playing with him.
It’s never right to violate someone’s modesty, especially a child’s.
Hopefully, the family and their young child are recovering well from their ordeal now that justice has been served.
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Featured image by MS News.
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