Former preschool teacher jailed for ill-treating 2-year-old girl
The judge said that if the child had special needs as the defence alleged, that would make the offender even more culpable.
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SINGAPORE: A 32-year-old former preschool teacher was sentenced to 10 months' jail on Thursday (Dec 18) for ill-treating a two-year-old girl in 2022.
Wu Jiaying had forcefully placed the girl down onto the floor and a chair, lifted her by the arm and pulled her across the classroom, and shaken her violently in the span of about an hour on May 11, 2022.
Wu fought the allegations in a trial but was convicted in October of one charge under the Children and Young Persons Act for causing "unnecessary physical pain and suffering" to the child.
The school where she worked cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the victim's identity.
On Thursday, the Chinese national told the court she had received a warning letter from the Ministry of Education after the incident.
"After I received the warning letter, I am more aware of what I did wrong and I corrected and made up for my actions and my mistake," she said through an interpreter.
Her offer of compensation to the victim was declined by the girl's family, the court heard.
In sentencing, Deputy Principal District Judge Ong Chin Rhu noted that during the trial, the defence took pains to emphasise that the victim was suspected to have special needs.
"In my view, if this were so, the child would be rendered even more vulnerable and the culpability of the accused correspondingly higher," she said.
Judge Ong also said that Wu had breached the trust placed in her as an early childhood educator.
Noting the victim's young age, she said this meant the girl was not only defenceless against Wu's actions, but could not proactively seek help from others or report the abuse.
At trial, Wu said she had intended only to control the situation and get the child to calm down.
She also argued that she suffered from major depressive disorder, was stressed by her heavy workload and was not trained to handle a child who may have special needs or was experiencing slower development.
Wu also argued that the school did not take her feedback about the child's suspected condition seriously.
In her verdict, the judge had rejected Wu's submissions and found that the prosecution had proven the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
The judge previously said the psychiatric report tendered by Wu was "bereft" of supporting evidence and reasoning for its conclusions, including that Wu's alleged condition had a causal link to the offence.
Judge Ong said Wu attempted to downplay the intensity of her actions, particularly the force she had used on the child.
This was by describing her actions as "inappropriate", that her actions appeared to be exaggerated, and that she was "not gentle enough".
Wu also pointed to the lack of medical evidence linking her acts to any injury and the lack of direct testimony from the child in arguing that her acts did not cause any pain or harm to the child.
Judge Ong said the court did not need such evidence before making a finding that her acts had caused the child pain.
Wu intially requested to start her jail term one week later to settle personal matters, but her bailor declined to continue putting up the bail amount of S$10,000 (US$7,700) for her.
For ill-treating a child, she could have been jailed for up to eight years, fined up to S$8,000 or both.
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