Abused toddler dies

By MOHD YAAKOB YUSOF

IN two weeks, toddler Mohd Naim Alma Zaadi would have celebrated his first birthday, but the suspected abuse victim died at Subang Jaya Medical Centre at 12.30am yesterday.

His mother, Norashikin Mohd Ali, 37, was with him when a doctor delivered the bad news.“I was with him when I realised something was wrong. I called the nurse who later called the doctor. A few minutes later, I was told that he was gone,” she said.

Mohd Naim’s body was taken to Serdang Hospital at 3am for an autopsy and was buried at USJ22 Muslim cemetery in Subang Jaya yesterday afternoon.The toddler was brought to the hospital last Wednesday when Norashikin’s maid called and told her that Mohd Naim had two epileptic fits.He had been suffering from epileptic fits after a fan fell on his head last month.The doctors found a crack on his skull, which caused his brain to swell and bleed, following an X-ray and CT scan after they found bruises on his body.The doctors told Norashikin that the crack was fresh and suspected that it could be due to abuse.

Last Thursday, police remanded the maid until tomorrow. The remand is expected to be extended.Norashikin said she had discovered several bruises on her son’s body before but did not suspect anything amiss. “I am shocked. We treated the maid like family and this is how she repaid our kindness,” said Norashikin at the cemetery.

She said a police officer told her that her second child, Mohd Naufal, had also been allegedly abused by the maid.“I was told that my four-year-old had been locked in a storeroom when my husband and I were at work,” she claimed.She said she and her husband, Alma Zaadi Annwar, 36, will think twice before hiring another maid.“This is what happens when maid agencies do not screen the workers properly,” she said.It is learnt that the couple is considering suing the agency over the incident.It was the couple’s third maid. The first maid had worked with them for three years while the second stayed for couple of weeks before running away.Most of the toddler’s relatives described the maid as a “good actress”.

One of them, who declined to be named, said they had seen the maid several times, including during a family gathering at Cameron Highlands in June.“She seemed like a kind person and we did not expect such an incident,” the relative said.“She stayed at my sister’s house in Subang Jaya after Mohd Naim was sent to hospital.”She claimed the maid was panicky the whole night.“She told us that Mohd Naim fell from a television rack but a police officer said that she told them he fell from the stairs.”It is learnt that police had taken statements from several family members and neighbours.

Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said the case, which was initially classified as child abuse, was reclassified to murder after the toddler died.