Helper who abused 82-year-old man with Alzheimer’s in his care sentenced to 12 months, 4 wks’ jail

SINGAPORE: A domestic helper from Myanmar who abused an 82-year-old man in his care on multiple occasions was given a 12-month and four-week jail sentence on Tuesday (Feb 11). According to a report in The Straits Times, because the abused man suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, he can neither remember nor complain about the helper’s mistreatment.

As such, it was possible that the helper, 36-year-old Thant Zin Oo, might have believed his actions would go unnoticed and that he could get away with the abuse, the prosecution said.

Thant pleaded guilty to three counts of voluntarily causing hurt, and two additional charges were also taken into consideration for his sentencing.

The abuse of the elderly man took place between February and March last year, five and a half years after Thant had been hired by the man’s son to take care of his father, who lived in an HDB unit with others. Thant stayed in the same room as the elderly man

In 2023, the man’s son and daughter had already noticed that their father had bruises and that Thant was sometimes inattentive to their father’s needs while playing games on his phone. That year, one of the people living in the unit also told the man’s son that Thant shouted at his father often.

In August 2023, the son and daughter installed CCTV cameras in the unit. When they checked the footage from the camera last March, they discovered that the helper mistreated their father on at least five occasions in a month.

Thant was seen in footage shown in court hitting the man on his head as he was trying to rise from his chair, and then the helper threw the man onto his bed, which resulted in the elderly man hitting his head on the wall. After that, Thant pulled the man up roughly and hit him on the head again, and when he forcibly moved the man from sitting to lying, the man’s head hit his bed frame.

This occurred on February 22, 2024. When the elderly man’s family saw how badly their father had been mistreated, they brought him to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where an employee of the hospital filed a police report.

Despite Thant’s abuse of their father, the son of the elderly man has helped him with obtaining legal assistance pro bono, and even wrote a positive testimonial for him and had his wife stand bail for the helper.

However, District Judge Salina Ishak said at Thant’s sentencing:  “There is a compelling reason to send a strong deterrent signal that such abuse of trust will not be tolerated by our courts.” /TISG

Read also: Frustrated helper who bit & pinched baby gets 20-month jail sentence