Maid tries to kill her newborn baby
Maid tries to kill her newborn baby
JAKARTA (JP): A housemaid who claimed to work for the
Philippine Embassy was detained on Tuesday evening for allegedly
trying to kill her one-day-old baby at the Menteng public health
clinic (Puskesmas) on Jl. Menteng Raya, Central Jakarta.
Menteng Police substation chief Comr. Eky H.S. said on
Wednesday the 20-year-old maid, identified as Ida, was caught
red-handed trying to murder her newborn at 6:30 p.m. in the
Puskesmas rest room.
Eky said the maid, who was still receiving medical treatment
at the Puskesmas, had been taken into custody and would be
questioned in connection with the alleged attempted murder.
"The saved baby, currently undergoing medical treatment at the
Puskesmas, is now in police protection," he told The Jakarta Post
by telephone.
"Although the baby was saved, the police will continue to
process the mother because she tried to kill her own baby."
The alleged murder attempt was uncovered when a cleaning
service boy at the Puskesmas reported to one of the clinic's
security guards that he had heard a baby crying in the rest room,
the door of which had been locked from the inside.
After breaking down the door, the security guard and the
cleaning boy reportedly found the maid strangling her baby while
holding its head under water in the toilet bowl. They took the
baby from her.
They then reported the case to the Menteng Police.
Separately, Ida, who was still recovering after giving birth
at the Menteng Puskesmas, told the Post that she had tried to
kill her baby because she was too ashamed to face society because
the man who had impregnated her would not take responsibility.
She declined to identify the man, saying he had disappeared.
She said she would leave the baby's fate in the hands of the
police.
Eky said that Ida claimed she worked at the Philippine Embassy
on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta.
When contacted by the Post, Philippine Embassy Vice
ConsulZaldy Patron said that the embassy did not employ an
Indonesian maid named Ida.
"We don't employ any housemaids from Indonesia at this
embassy, but we have no knowledge of whether she might work with
individuals of the embassy staff," she said.(01)