FDH denies hurting young ward

West Kowloon Law Courts Building

A 35-year-old Filipino domestic helper denied in court that she had intentionally hurt her seven-year-old ward while giving him a bath.

Julyn A., who is standing trial for allegedly hurting the son of her employer, on Aug. 1 testified at a West Kowloon court, saying the injury found on the boy’s buttock was caused by an accident.

She said that at about 6:40 in the evening, the boy and his father arrived at the flat. She then proceeded to give the boy a bath.

Julyn then said she took his clothes off. However, the boy was moving about, “dancing and jumping around” in the bathroom, which Julyn described as a small one. She said she closed the folding door of the bathroom to avoid the water spilling from the bathroom. As the boy still refused to listen to her, he then slipped and fell on her.

The boy, she said, then fell on her lap while she was holding the hair dryer. The hair dryer then touched the hip or the buttock area of the boy.

“The boy cried, and then he stood up. I looked at his body, but I did not see any mark. I asked him if he was hurt, but did not say anything,” Julyn told the court through an Ilocano-English interpreter.

Asked by her duty lawyer how she would describe the contact, the defendant said it was accidental.

Before Julyn gave her testimony, the prosecution presented a doctor who wrote the medical report about the boy’s injury.

Judge June Cheung Tin-ngan adjourned the case to Aug. 18 for verdict.