Mother jailed for three years by Dubai court for torturing and killing 14-month-old son

Housemaid of Emirati woman told prosecutors that the mother would regularly be violent towards the boy, who would constantly cry at night and the mother would do nothing to appease him.

DUBAI // A mother who tortured and killed her 14-month-old toddler was sentenced to three years in jail by Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday.

The Emirati, 33, was found to have stamped on the boy’s stomach so violently that he died of his injuries in hospital.

Her 46-year-old Indonesian housemaid told investigators that the woman regularly treated her son mercilessly, shoving a spoon into his mouth and throwing the naked child on the bathroom floor.

“Once I walked in on her to see she was pressing with great strength on his stomach and, when she noticed me, she stopped,” the maid said.

The incident that killed the boy happened on July 16 last year at the defendant’s home in Al Qusais. After inflicting injuries on him, the mother took him to a private hospital in Al Barsha for treatment where he died, and doctors alerted police.

The maid said the child would constantly cry at night and his mother would not try to calm him down.

“The only time I wouldn’t hear him crying are the times when his father was home,” said the maid.

The defendant’s sister said she often saw bruises and scratches on the child’s face and neck.

“Once, I noticed a bruise under his eye and, when I touched it, I discovered the bruise was dark blue but covered with make-up,” said the sister, adding that the mother also used to tie her boy’s legs with a headscarf.

A doctor working at the hospital said the boy had been treated for a number of serious injuries.

“I had been following up on the child since he was one month old,” the Egyptian doctor said.

“He came to the hospital four times: the first he suffered from a brain haemorrhage, the second he suffered from diarrhoea and vomiting, then a fractured thigh bone.

“On October 2, 2015, he was brought with a fractured skull. He was treated for all that and discharged.”

A medical report found that the child died as a result of internal bleeding in the abdomen caused by violent pressure, which damaged his intestines.

During her first appearance in court, the mother denied killing her son and said: “I didn’t kill him. I have other children that I raised and I even raised my sisters and brothers. I didn’t kill him; he was sick and we have been to many places seeking treatment for him.”