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Maid jailed five months in Hong Kong for hitting two young children in their home

An Indonesian maid was jailed for five months today for hitting a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy more than 25 times while she was staying alone at home with the two children.

Thomas Chan

An Indonesian maid was jailed for five months yesterday for repeatedly hitting a four-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother while she was alone with the children at their home.

Kowloon City magistrate So Wai-tak criticised Adriana Marsalina for using excuses to cover up her offences, which were captured on a closed-circuit television camera from February 11 to 17. The 37-year-old had earlier pleaded not guilty to seven counts of ill-treatment or neglect while in charge of a child or young person.

The court heard that Marsalina assaulted the girl 12 times and the boy 14 times. They were named X and Y in court for legal reasons. Marsalina, who had worked as a maid in Hong Kong since 2013, once struck the left side of the girl and asked: "Are you dreaming?"

On another occasion she asked the boy to open his mouth, and when he refused to eat she hit his leg.

CCTV footage showed the two children crying after being struck by Marsalina. In giving evidence, the maid said the children's abrupt reactions on the footage were because "they dodged her acts and the floor was slippery".

So dismissed this account as unreasonable and unbelievable.

"The parents in the case, like many other parents in Hong Kong, need to work, and the responsibility of taking care of the children has been passed to a foreign domestic helper," So said.

"The two children … did not know how to protect themselves and did not resist violent acts. They did not even know how to launch a complaint."

Outside court, the Support Group for Hong Kong Employers with Foreign Domestic Helpers encouraged parents to set up CCTV cameras at home to protect their children from being abused by maids, and to immediately report such cases to police.

The group's convenor, Joan Tsui, said it received complaints from fellow employers from time to time, but some did not call police to avoid the hassle of finding a new maid.

 

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