Nur Amira Muhamad Razali, who is pregnant and has a one-year-old son, was sent to jail on Dec 12. - ST
SINGAPORE: An educational and behavioural therapist assaulted a severely autistic nine-year-old boy, who is unable to verbally express himself, during one of their sessions in his home.
The child was later found with injuries, including bruises on his neck and left elbow.
A hidden closed-circuit television camera caught Nur Amira Muhamad Razali assaulting the boy, and his mother alerted the police soon after.
In an unrelated case, Nur also used criminal force on a second victim – a six-year-old child with autism.
The 33-year-old offender, who is now pregnant and has a one-year-old son, was sentenced to three weeks’ jail on Dec 12 after she pleaded guilty to assaulting the nine-year-old victim.
Two other charges linked to the younger victim were considered during sentencing.
Nur had graduated from the Singapore Institute of Management with a degree in psychology in 2016 and completed a registered behavioural technician course four years later.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Shi Yun told the court that the older victim was diagnosed with severe autism when he was four years old.
He had been attending educational and behavioural therapy sessions with Nur for five years, before she was caught assaulting him in 2020. Each therapy session lasted around 90 minutes. They were conducted behind closed doors in a bedroom of the victim’s home.
The DPP said: “The victim’s parents shared a good relationship with the accused prior to the incident, and... they even attended the accused’s wedding.”
In June 2020, the boy’s mother noticed that there were scratches on her son’s back and a red lump on his hand.
She brushed the matter aside as she assumed that her son had been careless. But on July 28, 2020, the mother found red marks on her son’s left arm.
They resembled nail marks made by someone who could have gripped onto his left arm. The mother had made this discovery right after her son completed a therapy session with Nur.
The mother then decided to install a hidden camera in the bedroom where the therapy sessions were conducted.
On the morning of July 29, 2020, the pair had a session together, and Nur’s offence came to light when the mother later viewed a recording taken from the device.
The video footage caught Nur performing acts including hitting the boy’s left arm and mouth. The clip also showed her grabbing his neck and hitting his forehead with her right hand.
The mother lodged a police report later that day.
On Dec 12, DPP Tan urged the court to sentence Nur to between four and six weeks’ jail.
She added: “In abusing the victim in his own home, the accused had breached the trust reposed in her, as a therapist, by both the victim and his parents.
“The victim is a nine-year-old child with severe autism. He is thus unable to verbally express himself, and the accused’s wrongdoings might have gone undetected if not for the CCTV camera which the complainant installed in the bedroom.”
Defence lawyer Joyce Khoo from Quahe Woo & Palmer pleaded for her client to be given two weeks’ jail.
She told Principal District Judge Jill Tan that Nur was under a lot of stress at the time of the offence, as she had been found with multiple fibroids in her body. A doctor had also told her that they could affect her ability to conceive.
Fibroids are non-cancerous growth arising from the muscle wall of the womb. It is one of the most prevalent gynaecological conditions, estimated to be present in about 20 per cent to 30 per cent of women, according to the National University Hospital website. - The Straits Times/ANN
