The Intermediate Court raised serious doubts on a daycare centre’s training procedures after sentencing an 18-year-old worker to six months’ jail for harming a one-year-old under her care.
“The daycare centre has much responsibility to ensure its workers or employees are trained and capable of looking after young children,” said Intermediate Court Judge Hajah Hazarena binti Pehin Orang Kaya Setia Jaya Dato Paduka Haji Abu Hurairah during sentencing on Thursday.
She added that it was a concern that the defendant only had little training before being allowed to look after children.
“The court had serious doubts that the defendant received the proper guidance and training to look after children.
“Standard operating procedures should be introduced, implemented and enforced to ensure babies, toddlers and young children who are sent to daycare centres will be safe and cared for properly,” said the judge.
The judge also said that the incident “has eroded public confidence in daycare centres”.
“The case has raised questions as to how child carers are trained and the standards of daycare centres. Parents who send their children to daycare centres usually do not have a choice.
“A lot of trust is placed in these centres to ensure that very young children are cared for while their parents are working to support their families,” said the judge, adding that it would be a parent’s worst nightmare to have a child hurt while at a daycare.
“Unfortunately, for the victim’s parents, this nightmare has come true,” she said.
The 18-year-old local defendant, whose identity has been withheld to protect the victim, had earlier pleaded guilty to injuring the toddler.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurul Fitri binti Kiprawi said the defendant’s role as a child caretaker would help children with bathroom routines.
On January 30, the defendant brought the victim to the bathroom at around 3.40pm after soiling her diaper.
The defendant said she had difficulties in cleaning the victim’s private area and used her long fingernails to scrape the victim’s private area in a rough manner. The defendant said the victim was crying and resisting cleaning.
After cleaning the victim, the defendant brought the child to the changing area to put on a diaper, where a colleague noticed that the victim’s thigh was covered in blood. The defendant and her colleagues took pictures of the victim and sent the pictures to her parents.
The defendant said she had only been working at the centre for a month and did not have any prior experience working in childcare facilities.
However, she told the court that she has some experience looking after young children when she watched her cousin’s children who were about three to four years old.
The defendant said the daycare gave her some training on bathing children, changing diapers and feeding.
The defendant also said that she had been looking after the victim since her first day of work. She also cared for other children and would often change the diapers of children, sometimes two to three times a day.
On handing the sentence, the judge took into consideration that the defendant’s youth, her previously clear record and that she pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
However, the court cannot ignore that a young child was seriously hurt, that the incident was completely reckless and disregarded the life and safety of the victim.
“This is not how a child carer would look after a toddler. The victim would have been too young to resist the defendant while her private parts were being cut and bruised.
“The victim was too young to speak out against the defendant and could not possibly comprehend that something seriously wrong had happened to her,” added the judge. – Fadley Faisal
