Bangkok Maid Arrested for Poisoning Toddler’s Milk

A Bangkok family’s security camera captured what looked like a routine cleaning job turning into a potential tragedy, leading to a dramatic on-air arrest and renewed scrutiny of Thailand’s booming market for short-term domestic helpers.

Key take-aways at a glance

• Camera footage appears to show a day maid tipping antiseptic liquid into a toddler’s milk.

• Suspect “Auntie Ann,” 57, was detained live during a Channel 3 talk show.

• Police have pressed counts of premeditated assault and food adulteration, both carrying prison terms.

• The court set B 30,000 bail; she remains behind bars after failing to post it.

• Pediatricians urge parents to review hiring practices and smell-check bottles before feeding.

Behind the townhouse door

Early in the afternoon of 26 December, a grandmother in a four-storey Bang Phongphang home noticed an unmistakable Dettol odour wafting from her grandson’s bottle. Minutes earlier, CCTV captured the family’s newly hired cleaner pouring an opaque liquid from a floor-cleaning spray into the milk before returning the bottle to the child’s cot. The boy, 2 years 4 months, was rushed to a private hospital; doctors reported no immediate toxicity but advised 48 hours of observation.

The maid had been booked via a popular Facebook group offering “maids by the day” for B 500 a shift. It was her first morning on site.

From studio lights to handcuffs

Two days after the clip went viral, the suspect—identified by police only as Usanee, alias “Ann”—accepted an invitation to Hon Krasae, Channel 3’s ratings-rich midday programme. While she insisted on air that the liquid was “just cloudy water” and blamed a “blocked sense of smell,” plain-clothes officers from Bang Phongphang station converged on the studio. Viewers watched in real time as Ann accused host Kanchai Kamnerdploy of “setting her up for B 5,000.” Officers countered they had simply been “watching TV like everyone else” when they realised the prime suspect was in the building.

Charges that go well beyond petty theft

Metropolitan Police Division 5 chief Pol Maj Gen Wittawat Chinkham confirmed the file now lists Section 296 (premeditated assault) and Section 236 (food contamination)—offences that can draw up to three years and, when minors are involved, considerably more. Investigators seized two smartphones for a digital forensics sweep of call logs, photos of valuables and any chat records that might show planning or accomplices.

A Metropolitan Court judge authorised six days of initial remand—until 5 January—rejecting police objections and setting bail at B 30,000. Unable to raise the sum, Ann was transferred to the Central Women’s Correctional Institution in Chatuchak.

A history that keeps resurfacing

Police say the suspect’s face rang bells the moment the video emerged. In August 2024, Siriraj Hospital security nabbed the same woman for wallet-snatching in a waiting room; the court gave her a suspended sentence. A year later she reportedly lifted jewellery from an On Nut condominium but avoided prosecution after returning the goods. In both cases, she was moonlighting as a cleaner.

Investigators are now combing unresolved files involving tampered food or missing property where a woman matching her description was on staff. “We need to know whether this was an isolated act or a pattern,” one officer told the Bangkok Post under condition of anonymity.

Legal experts: intent will decide everything

Criminal-law lecturer Assoc Prof Nuttaya La-ongchai notes that prosecutors must prove “specific intent to injure” to secure a heavy sentence. “If judges believe she merely caused a risk without aiming to kill, the ceiling may be three years. But if the court sees this as an attempted homicide of a defenceless child, sections on attempted murder can push penalties to two-thirds of a life term.”

Past Thai rulings on poisoned food often hinge on quantity and toxicity. Dettol contains 4.8% chloroxylenol, a phenolic disinfectant that can burn the oesophagus in small children, supporting the argument that the act was knowingly dangerous.

A mother’s anger—and a wider parenting fear

The boy’s 37-year-old mother, Renuka (surname withheld), told reporters she will pursue the case “to the last appeal,” adding, “Someone who thinks of harming a baby shouldn’t be free in society.” Her view resonates with parents nationwide who increasingly rely on social-media hiring because of staff shortages after the pandemic.

The Thai Paediatric Society reminds caregivers to:

Smell and taste-test milk when anything seems odd.

Keep all cleaning chemicals in locked cabinets, not in generic spray bottles.

Require copy of ID card and, where possible, a police clearance before hiring helpers.

An unregulated gig economy

Domestic-work platforms on Facebook and Line offer same-day cleaners at half the cost of traditional agencies, yet they provide no vetting. Labour researchers at Thammasat University estimate at least 200,000 workers nationwide now find gigs this way. “It’s convenient, but it places all due-diligence on the employer,” warns sociologist Dr Parichat Vichitpitak. Thai law currently does not mandate background checks for casual domestic service, though draft legislation on household-worker protection has languished since 2022.

Child-safety checklist for Thai homes

Parents of infants may consider the following quick audit:

• Store milk powder and sterilised bottles in a single locked drawer.

• Install two-way cameras in nurseries; footage should save to the cloud.

• Rotate helpers, so no one outsider gains full routine knowledge.

• Post an emergency poison-control number (1667) next to the phone.

What happens next

Prosecutors must decide by 5 January whether to indict or seek an additional detention order. If the case proceeds to trial, testimony from medical experts, digital evidence and the unedited CCTV clip will be crucial. A conviction on both counts could still be eclipsed by a possible upgrade to attempted murder, depending on forensic toxicology results.

Whatever the final verdict, the incident has jolted Bangkok parents into looking twice at every bottle, every helper and every glossy Facebook “maid-for-a-day” post that pops onto their feed.