SINGAPORE, Dec 14 — A woman previously jailed for poisoning two infants in her care as a babysitter was today given extra jail time for abusing her own daughter while on bail over the poisoning offences.
Sa’adiah Jamari, a 41-year-old nurse, was sentenced to four months of additional jail time after she appeared in court via video-link from prison and pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt.
Two other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Heershan Kaur described Sa’adiah as a physically and verbally abusive mother towards her two daughters since they were about six years old.
“After each assault, she threatened to send the girls to the girls’ home and to make them homeless if they reported the assaults to the police,” DPP Heershan said.
Sa’adiah is a divorced mother of two girls, now aged 20 and 21. She was sentenced to seven years’ jail in December 2020 for poisoning two infants — then five and 11 months old — with cocktails of drugs.
Dr Peter Looi Chong Heng, a physician who previously testified to have prescribed her some of the same drugs that the authorities found in her home and in one of the baby girl’s urine, was revealed on Wednesday to have been in a relationship with Sa’adiah.
He had been acting as a stepfather to Sa’adiah’s two daughters and gave Sa’adiah money for rent and a monthly allowance, DPP Heershan said.
What happened
On June 5 last year, while out on bail pending an ultimately unsuccessful appeal over her poisoning offence, Sa’adiah had an argument with Dr Looi after he refused to give her extra money that he was afraid she would spend on sleep medication, on which she was dependent.
Upset by this, Sa’adiah later shouted at her two daughters for “being useless” and for making a mess in the living room.
After the two girls cleaned up the living room and went to their bedrooms, Sa’adiah barged into her elder daughter’s room and told her to tidy up her bedroom.
When she saw that her elder daughter was using her handphone, Sa’adiah became furious and snatched it from her.
Her daughter begged Sa’adiah to return it because she needed it for a submission to her lecturer, but the mother refused.
Sa’adiah then intentionally closed the door on her daughter’s feet several times.
The younger daughter, having witnessed this, told her sister to pack her things and leave home to avoid escalating the matter.
But just as she was about to do so, Sa’adiah charged at the elder daughter. She pulled her daughter’s hair, kicked her stomach and punched her repeatedly while she was squatting on the floor.
Upon seeing this, the younger daughter recorded a video of the assault.
Later that day, Sa’adiah hit her elder daughter again with a clothes hanger, which bent from the impact.
For the younger daughter, this was the last straw. She ran out of the house to call the police and waited outside as her sister screamed.
During this time, Sa’adiah had taken an eyebrow razor and cut her elder daughter’s thigh twice.
She pointed a pair of scissors at her daughter but her daughter snatched it and threw it out the window. Sa’adiah made her daughter retrieve it, so her daughter ran out and waited at the staircase area.
When the police arrived, the elder daughter was taken to the Changi General Hospital where she was observed to have cuts on her thigh, a swollen arm and multiple bruises on her back.
‘Pattern of abuse’
Seeking five to six months’ jail, DPP Heershan said this was a case where the public interest of protecting victims, whose trust has been exploited, applies strongly.
“The victim, a young girl of 21 years old, was in a close familial relationship with her abuser, who was her own mother, a person she was dependent on and who ordinarily should have protected her from any kind of abuse,” she said.
Noting Sa’adiah’s previous conviction for poisoning babies, DPP Heershan argued that the latest offence shows “a pattern of abuse towards vulnerable, young and hapless victims, who were entrusted to her by virtue of her position as a caretaker or mother”.
Sa’adiah’s lawyer Sharifah Nabilah said her client was genuinely remorseful and that the elder daughter has forgiven her.
The lawyer from law firm Luo Ling Ling added that an Institute of Mental Health report found that her major depressive disorder which was in relapse had a small contributory link to the offence as her anxiety and irritability led her to be less able to restrain herself.
An offence of voluntarily causing hurt carries a punishment of up to three years’ jail or a fine of up to S$5,000 (RM16,299), or both. If the offender is in a close relationship with the victim, the sentence can be enhanced by up to two times the maximum punishment. — TODAY
