FDH gets suspended sentence for abusing two-year-old boy

Kwun Tong Law Courts Building

A 40-year-old Filipino domestic worker in Kai Tak got a suspended sentence after she physically abused her employer’s two-year-old son that was caught on CCTV, local media reported.

Erlinda B. Organista was sentenced today (January 7) to two weeks in prison at the Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts for “assault of a person in charge of a child” but the judge suspended this for one year because she was remorseful and immediately confessed to the crime.

Organista on Dec. 26 admitted the offense, adding that she was in a bad mood because she had marital problems and was overworked. The boy had reportedly refused to eat when she tried to feed him.

She had been working in HK since 2011 and was arrested in mid-December after the boy’s father heard him crying in his room.

He checked the CCTV footage and saw the domestic worker abusing his son. Organista reportedly slapped the boy’s face eight times, pulled his foot 20 times, and pinched his neck and ears.

The judge noted that child was defenseless against Organista’s abuse and her marital problems was no excuse.

But since she immediately admitted to the crime, had been in jail for two weeks, and was “deeply remorseful,” the judge sentenced her to two weeks in jail but suspended it for one year.

This means that if she does not commit any crime in the next twelve months, she will not serve the prison sentence.