SINGAPORE – Frustrated by his employer’s demands, a freelance caregiver took it out on his patient by punching him and hitting him in the face.
Joel Goh Ming Xuan, 22, was sentenced to 54 days’ jail on Dec 5 after pleading guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a vulnerable person.
Court documents showed he was employed by the victim’s mother in March 2024 to care for her son, who was bedridden and non-verbal.
This included duties such as cleaning the victim, changing his diapers and helping him move around the house.
In May that year, Goh started arranging fewer sessions with the victim, as he was upset that his employer, the victim’s mother, often made him run additional errands and would send several messages to check on his whereabouts while he was carrying them out.
On July 2, 2024, Goh was upset again with his employer and decided to take it out on her son.
At about 8.25am, he told the woman, who was resting in the master bedroom, that he could manage taking care of her son on his own, and then closed the bedroom door.
“This roused the (woman’s) suspicion and she remotely turned on the closed-circuit television (camera) in the living room, which was linked to her mobile phone,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Jordy Kay told the court.
Video footage played in court showed Goh shifting the victim on the bed in the living room while changing his diaper at about 8.45am.
