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| Shatin neighborhood where incident happened (Google Maps photo) |
A Filipina domestic helper who lost her job on March 3 this yer, after a one-year-old boy under her care was scalded on the hands by water from potatoes she was boiling, today told the Shatin Court that she shielded the boy from injury and thus suffered painful burns on her left arm.
As a result, N. Navarro said in her testimony, only small splashes
reached the boy, identified only as X, who caused the accident by pulling on the
cord of the rice cooker in which she was boiling the potatoes as his food.
Navarro, 44 years old, was testifying in her trial on a
charge of “ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of child or young person”
in violation of the Offenses Against the Person Ordinance.
The trial ended today with Deputy Magistrate Charlotte Kong
scheduling a summing up and a possible verdict on Oct. 13. In case a decision
cannot be reached by then, the verdict will be handed down on Oct. 31 instead.
Navarro's bail was extended until then.
The prosecutor presented three video clips from the CCTV showing
what happened in the living room; in the third, Navarro’s scream was heard , followed by the
baby crying.
He also called the baby’s mother, shown on the video clips as
praying in the living room and rushing to the kitchen after hearing the
commotion, who testified that she did not see what happened in the kitchen.
She said she saw Navarro in the kitchen holding her son, with the cooker, potato cubes and water on the floor.
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The prosecutor also presented a video-recorded interview
from the police, showing Navarro recounting what happened and apologizing for
the accident.
“I want to apologize,” she said in the recording. “I am very
sorry for the accident especially for the baby that got hurt.”
During her testimony, the prosecutor asked Navarro why she
went to the kitchen while carrying the baby, and “bringing baby boy X in such
environment,” when her employer had a standing rule against doing this for safety reasons.
She said she took the baby from the living room to avoid disturbing the mother who was then praying there. But then it occurred to her when she was helping the baby climb the stairs to her quarters on the third floor that she had not turned off the rice cooker.
So she entered the kitchen with the baby in her arms.
However, with the baby also trying to reach the cooker, she sat him down
on the floor and reached for a piece of plastic to give him as a distraction.
However, as the cooker was plugged into a low wall outlet, the baby was
able to grasp its cord and pull it.
Navarro said she shielded the baby with her body when the boiling
water splashed, and took him to the toilet and poured cold water on his hands
which got splashed with hot water.
In her testimony, the mother also said she the baby was burned on a foot and his clothing was all wet.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense raise the discrepancy over the baby's injury as claimed by the helper and the mother.
