Woman arrested for trying to kill baby

The Sharjah Police have arrested a Filipina housemaid who got pregnant out of wedlock and tried to kill her newborn baby right after delivering him by throwing him through a garbage chute from the ninth floor of a residential building in Sharjah. Disclosing details about the case, Brigadier Abdullah Mubarak Al Dukhan said that the gruesome crime was reported to the police on Monday morning. The baby boy miraculously survived the fall and  suffered only minor bruises and was immediately taken to Al Qassimi Hospital. “The Filipina was working with an Asian family and on checking her legal status, we found that she absconded from her sponsor and was illegally recruited by the family to work for them as a housemaid. They employed her even though she was not under their sponsorship,” he said. The family that employed the Filipina consisted of a couple and their five-year-old son. They were shocked to know that woman had tried to kill her baby. “The maid was arrested three hours after we were notified about the incident. We arrested the suspect even though she tried to tell lies,” said Brig. Al Dukhan. The maid had not informed the family about her pregnancy. She felt labour pains at around 4am while she and the family members were asleep. She rushed to the toilet, cut the umbilical cord with a pair of scissors and then wrapped the newborn in a newspaper and put him in a plastic bag before throwing him down the garbage chute. “She threw the baby thinking that no one will know about the crime and she was sure the baby will die after falling from the building, but God wanted something else,” added Brig. Al Dukhan. “The tiny body of the baby was discovered by the building watchman who was carrying out his regular morning rounds at 6am and was throwing out rubbish from the aluminium rubbish container. He was shocked to find a baby lying on top of a rubbish bag,” he explained. The watchman contacted the Buhairah police station and a police patrol and ambulance were dispatched to the scene of the incident and the baby was transferred to Al Qasimi Hospital. Doctors provided the baby all necessary vaccinations, issued a medical file and sent it to Sharjah Social Services. Brig. Al Dukhan noted that the baby sustained minor scratches and bruises on his body but his condition is stable now. A team from the Criminal and Investigation Department (CID) at the Sharjah Police went to the crime scene. The Filipina housemaid was soon arrested and during questioning she confessed that she became pregnant out of wedlock with a man who lived in another country. “After completion of legal procedures the maid will be detained and referred to Public Prosecution and the family who employed her will be penalised for keeping an illegal maid,” noted Brig. Al Dukhan.