2006 05: Maid found guilty of abuse

The Star online. News. Courts. Thursday May 18, 2006

By M.MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: An Indonesian maid broke down when a magistrate’s court here found her guilty of abusing a young child, to the extent that there were bruises on the boy’s body, including his private parts.

From the outset of the court proceedings, Sutina Dasino, 37, had repeatedly denied that she had abused 18-month-old Muhamad Haikal Asyraf Shaiful Azlan, saying that she had merely been clumsy while taking care of him.

She appeared confused when the statement of facts was read out to her. And while she admitted to the charge, she refuted the contents of the statement.

“I never did it (abuse him). I was only clumsy,” she told the Selayang magistrate’s court yesterday.

The court then adjourned briefly and when it resumed later, a court interpreter read out the statement again – slowly – without any part of the statement amended. She understood it.
Sutina, 37, from central Java, admitted to abusing Muhamad Haikal while he was under her care at his Green Valley Park home in Rawang between January and March 9 this year.

The boy, the younger of two siblings, suffered 10 injuries and emotional distress.

The Indonesian maid was sentenced to 11 months’ jail.

Magistrate Ahmad Rizki Abdul Jalil ordered the jail term to run from the date of her arrest on March 11, after which she was to be deported to Indonesia.

Prosecuting officer Chief Insp Ramle Bakar asked the court to impose an appropriate sentence for the offence.

C/Insp Ramle, who tendered four photographs of the boy, asked the court to take into account his (the boy’s) condition.

Dr Mohd Shazli Abdul Rahman, who examined the boy at Selayang Hospital on March 10, found that he had bruises on his private parts as well as on his left forehead, knees, waist, right cheek and left shoulder.