KUALA LUMPUR: A babysitter was charged today in the Selayang Sessions Court with two counts of abusing a baby boy, leading to him being injured in the head, and disposing of the body to conceal his death.
Noor Aqilah Abd Rahman, 33, pleaded not guilty to the two charges that were read out to her before Judge Syafeera Mohd Said. The court set Aug 13 for the mention of the case.
The offences were alleged to have occurred at her rented house in Jalan Nakhoda Kiri 3, Batu Caves, between 6.20 pm and 6.50 pm on July 3.
On the first charge, under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001, Noor Aqilah is accused of, as a person having the care of five-month-old Adam Rayqal Mohd Sufi Naeif, of having abused him to the extent of causing a head injury.
The Act provides for a maximum fine of RM50,000 or imprisonment of up to 20 years, or both, if convicted.
Noor Aqilah, who was previously a cook, is also accused of having disposed of Adam Rayqal’s body with the intention of concealing his death so as to screen herself from the offence.
The charge, under Section 201 of the Penal Code, provides for the convicted person to be sentenced to a maximum imprisonment of three years and liable to a fine.
Noor Aqilah’s lawyers, M. Dinesh and Mohd Redzuan Mohamed Yusoff, requested the court to impose the minimum bail because she was taking care of her parents who suffered from hypertension, gout and heart ailments.
They also said that the parents were not working and that parents who had been sending their children for Noor Aqilah to take care had found other babysitters since her remand.
Mohd Redzuan told the court that his client, who was unmarried, had stopped working as a cook to focus fully on babysitting children and that she also had an adopted child who was handicapped and now being cared for by someone else.
DPP M. Arunjothi did not propose bail on the grounds that the case was of public interest and had attracted public attention, and left it to the court to determine the matter of bail.
The court set bail at RM18,000 in one surety and on condition that Noor Aqilah reported to the nearest police station twice a month pending the conclusion of the case.
The media reported on July 3 that Adam Rayqal was reported missing from the house of his babysitter in Batu Caves and that the police found his body in the freezer of a refrigerator at the house late that night.
A post-mortem at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital found that Adam Rayqal had died of brain haemorrhage and he had a skull fracture. - Bernama
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