The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a ruling of the Taiwan High Court that an Indonesian caregiver should be sentenced to six years in prison for causing serious bodily harm to a one-year-old girl, leading to her paralysis.
The 22-year-old caregiver was employed by a man surnamed Chen (陳) in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Sinjhuang District (新莊) in August 2010 to take care of his young daughter.
The Taiwan High Court found that on Jan. 17 last year the caregiver forcefully pushed the young girl’s head because she would not stop crying and as a result, the child lost her balance and hit her head on the ground.
When Chen returned home that night, he saw the caregiver cleaning up his daughter’s vomit and immediately took the child to the hospital for a checkup before reporting the incident to the police.
After undergoing surgery, the girl suffered an intracranial -hemorrhage that paralyzed the right side of her body.
The caregiver admitted in court to pushing the child, saying that this was not the first time she had been physically abusive.
She had previously bitten the girl’s thighs and buttocks when the toddler threw tantrums, the court said.
In its ruling, the court said that all parents hoped their children would grow up healthy, adding that the caregiver should not have responded to the frustration of working abroad by abusing the young girl, ultimately causing her irreversible physical damage.
The Supreme Court’s decision is final.
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