A babysitter currently serving a seven-year sentence has been slapped with an additional four months’ jail after she was found guilty of abusing her daughter.
On Wednesday (14 Dec), 41-year-old Sa’adiah Jamari pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt to her daughter.
Since they were six, she had physically and verbally abused her daughters, now 20 and 21.
This latest sentence comes about two years after she was first sentenced to jail in Dec 2020 for poisoning two babies in her care with cocktails made of drugs.
Here’s a recap of how she landed herself in jail in the first place.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Sa’adiah was working as a registered nurse in 2016 when she poisoned the two babies — then five and 11 months old.
Their mothers, both unrelated, hired her to take care of their children.
After picking them up, they noticed their children were drowsy and sent them to the hospital.
Doctors found drugs in their systems at the hospital, ranging from Xanax to muscle relaxants and sleeping aids.
Xanax is usually used to treat anxiety
Source: Banyan Treatment Center
As a result, Sa’adiah was found guilty and sentenced to seven years’ jail.
In the most recent conviction, the court heard that Sa’adiah had subjected her daughters to 14-15 years of physical and verbal abuse.
After abusing them, she would threaten to send them to a girls’ home if they reported her to the police.
Currently, her daughters are 20 and 21.
At the time, she was in a relationship with stand-in doctor Peter Looi Chong Heng. He provided her with financial support through allowances and monthly rent payments.
Although her younger daughter tried to report the abuse to her school counsellor, the latter spoke to Sa’adiah.
Unfortunately, this made matters worse, as she made empty promises that she would change and stop being aggressive with her daughters.
In the end, she was unable to do so because of her explosive temper, court documents stated. She also claimed that she abused her daughters out of love for them.
In June last year, Sa’adiah texted Dr Looi to ask for money. She did so while on bail for her previous offence of poisoning babies.
However, he declined her request, as he had just given her S$500 for the week. He was also concerned that she would spend the money on sleep medication she depended on.
Then, they argued over the phone. Afterwards, Sa’adiah took her anger out on her daughters, scolding them for being “useless” and starting throwing items in the living room.
While her older daughter was using her phone in her room, she stormed in and snatched it away, ignoring her pleas to return it.
As she tried to enter her mother’s room to take her phone, Sa’adiah shut the door on her feet several times.
The younger daughter then urged her sister to pack up and leave to avoid making matters worse.
Before she could leave, Sa’adiah lunged at her older daughter and pulled her hair. While the latter was squatting on the floor, she continued her assault, kicking her stomach and punching her several times.
During the assault, her younger daughter recorded a video of the incident.
The torment did not end, as Sa’adiah picked up a clothes hanger and started beating her older daughter with it, to the point that it bent from the impact.
After witnessing the situation, the younger daughter felt it was the final straw.
She ran out of the house and called the police. Even after she reached the fourth floor, she could still hear her sister screaming.
In the house, Sa’adiah used an eyebrow razor and cut her older daughter twice on the thigh. She also pointed a pair of scissors at her, which the latter grabbed from her and hurled out the window.
When the police arrived, they conveyed the older daughter to the hospital. She suffered bruises on her back and arm, a swollen arm, cuts on her knee and tenderness in her head and shoulder blade.
In court, the prosecution asked for five to six months’ jail. Given that Sa’adiah was the victim’s mother, the vicious assault was a serious breach of trust.
Furthermore, she committed these acts while on bail for a previous offence.
Although she had major depressive disorder, the prosecution asked for little mitigating weight on this factor.
According to a report from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), she was not diagnosed with this condition during her consultation in Apr 2021.
Her prior offences contributed more to her depression, as she was irritable and worried about her court case and had insomnia.
According to TODAY, Sa’adiah filed an appeal in April against her seven-year jail sentence, arguing that someone else had poisoned the baby’s food. However, it was rejected.
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Featured image by MS News.
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