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Jail for domestic helper who repeatedly abused elderly man with dementia
Thant Zin Oo was sentenced to 12 months and 4 weeks’ jail after he admitted to three counts of voluntarily causing hurt.ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE – Feeling frustrated while taking care of an elderly man with dementia, a domestic helper repeatedly manhandled and hit him on multiple occasions.
The victim, who has Alzheimer’s disease, is unable to accurately remember the abuse, let alone complain about it.
The prosecution said Myanmar national Thant Zin Oo, 36, had “acted with impunity” and might have thought he could get away with it due to the victim’s condition.
On Feb 11, Thant Zin Oo was sentenced to 12 months’ and four weeks’ jail after he admitted to three counts of voluntarily causing hurt. Two similar charges were taken into consideration.
In sentencing, District Judge Salina Ishak said that given Singapore’s ageing population, many families engage domestic helpers to help care for older members.
Noting that Thant Zin Oo’s actions would cause serious public disquiet, Judge Ishak said: “There is a compelling reason to send a strong deterrent signal that such abuse of trust will not be tolerated by our courts.”
Deputy Public Prosecutor Teo Lu Jia said the victim was 82 at the time of the incidents from February to March 2024, and lived in a Housing Board unit with other tenants.
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As he had difficulties with daily living activities, his son had hired Thant Zin Oo to care for his father about 5½ years before the recorded abuse took place.
He was tasked to take care of the elderly man, including changing his diapers, showering and helping him to move around, and shared a room with him.
The victim’s son and daughter visited their father about once a week to buy him food and supplies.
In 2023, the victim’s son noticed bruises on his father’s body, while his daughter observed that there were times where Thant Zin Oo played games on his mobile phone and did not attend to the victim.
That year, one of the unit’s tenants told the victim’s son that the helper often shouted at the victim.
The victim’s children then decided to install a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera in the flat in August 2023.
In March 2024, they started to feel that something was wrong and decided to examine the CCTV recordings more closely. Court documents did not state exactly what prompted them to do so.
To their shock, they found out that Thant Zin Oo had abused their father on at least five occasions within a month.
CCTV footage played in court of an incident on Feb 22, 2024, showed the helper hitting the elderly man forcefully on his head while the latter was struggling to get up from his chair.
Thant Zin Oo then lifted the victim and threw him on the bed, causing the victim to hit his head against the wall.
DPP Teo said: “The victim reached out his hand towards (Thant Zin Oo) for help as his neck was tilted awkwardly, but the accused just stared at the victim without rendering any help and proceeded to walk away.”
While the victim struggled on the bed, Thant Zin Oo forcefully pulled him up and smacked his head again, before changing the elderly man’s shirt.
He then manhandled and swung the victim from a sitting to lying position, causing the elderly man’s head to hit the bed frame hard.
After discovering the abuse, the victim’s family members took him to Tan Tock Seng Hospital in April 2024. A hospital staff member made a police report.
The victim was admitted to hospital for two weeks and eventually discharged and moved into a nursing home.
Lawyer U. Sudharshanraj Naidu said his client’s actions were a “negative manifestation of caregiver burden”.
He said his client did not intend to cause suffering, and added: “(He) had lost his patience caring for an individual that is difficult to take care of.”
In response, DPP Teo said the family sent Thant Zin Oo for courses to equip him to care for the victim, and offered to sit with the elderly man or monitor him closely on CCTV if the helper needed to leave the house.
“As such, this was not a case where (he) was left with no guidance or no support in caring for the victim,” said DPP Teo, adding that caregiver fatigue cannot be an excuse for abuse.
The prosecutor further noted that the family celebrated the helper’s birthdays, and gave him presents and red packets for Christmas and Chinese New Year.
After Thant Zin Oo was charged, the victim’s son wrote a positive testimonial for him, arranged for his wife to stand bail, and helped him to obtain pro bono legal assistance.
DPP Teo said it appears that the victim’s son has forgiven the helper and called the son’s actions “heartening and commendable”, but noted that forgiveness is a private matter and should not influence the sentence.
