SINGAPORE — The domestic helper was angry with her 31-year-old employer after she scolded her for not putting away an ironing board properly and retaliated by abusing the latter’s infant twins.

On Monday (April 8), the 24-year-old maid, who cannot be named to protect her victims’ identities, was jailed for 12 weeks after she pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt. Another similar charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.

After she was scolded by her employer in November last year, the Indonesian helper decided to annoy her employer’s mother, who was looking after the 14-month-old twins at home. The helper had been employed for a year at the time.

She waited for the infants’ grandmother to put the twins — a boy and a girl — to sleep in a baby stroller in the living room.

As soon as their grandmother entered the kitchen to prepare lunch, the helper went to the living room. After making sure the coast was clear, she forcefully brushed her fingers against the infant girl’s face and ran back to her room.

Upon hearing the girl’s wails, the grandmother returned to the living room to coax her back to sleep.

Feeling that the girl had not cried loudly enough to disturb the grandmother, the helper returned to the living room again. This time, she scratched the boy’s face with her fingernails before returning to her room.

When the grandmother checked on the boy, she found several scratch marks and traces of blood on his face.

The grandmother informed the children’s mother, who was away at work at the time. After watching footage from a closed circuit television camera placed in the living room, the mother confronted her helper and lodged a police report at Punggol Neighbourhood Police Centre on the same day.

For her actions, the maid could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to S$5,000.