18-month baby beaten to death by babysitter Seeing the baby crying and not eating, the nanny lifted him in her hands, but she lost her grip and the boy felt down onto the ground. The nanny then repeatedly kicked the boy’s breast and stomach, causing him to die.   Ho Ngoc Nho.  On November 17, the Thu Duc district police in HCM City arrested Ho Ngoc Nho, 18, in Can Tho City to investigate the murder case. The victim was Do Nhat Long, 18 months old. Sources said that as the boy burst into loud wails, the babysitter repeatedly beat him and then left for the toilet. When she came back after 20 minutes, she saw the baby sitting immovable on the ground. Nho hurriedly carried the boy to hospital, but Long was dead. Huyen, the mother of the boy, said she left her son with Nho because Nho was a neighbor. “I sometimes saw livid bruise on my son’s face. But I could not imagine that she could do such a thing with my son,” she said. The local people, living the next door to Nho, said Nho regularly beat children. She not only beat Long, but her 2-year old child as well. “When the 2-year old boy cried, Nho did not soothe the boy into obedience, but beat him,” a neighbor said. “She also cheeks her parents.” The savage action of the young babysitter has stunned the public. Doan Dinh Kha, a parent, wrote to VietNamNet that the babysitter has lost her human nature when committing such a terrible crime. He wishes to see the babysitter to be heavily punished. Nguyen Thi Kha, a member of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Issues, when answering the interview of An Ninh Thu Do, said that it is necessary to punish Nho heavy as a warning to others. Kha also said that she feels sorry for the parents who are not financially capable enough to bring their children to high quality nursery schools. The local authorities should also be blamed in the case. The loosened management has led to the existence of unlicensed private run babysitting classes. A lot of babysitters are not well trained, while the material facilities of the classes are not good enough. The Linh Trung ward People’s Committee in Thu Duc district in HCM City had not known about Nho’s privately run babysitting class until Long was beaten to death. Le Quoc Dat, Deputy Chair of the Linh Trung Ward people’s committee, said the local authorities only keep control over the classes with 3-5 children and more. When asked who has to take the responsibility for the death of Long and the existence of unlicensed private run classes, Dat said that this is the fault of the whole management mechanism, not only one or two individuals. Vietnamese parents have become more worried about the babysitting service nowadays when more and more abuse cases have been reported in recent years. In 2008, Quang Thi Kim Hoa, a babysitter in Bien Hoa City of Dong Nai province, was sentenced 1.5 years in prison for abusing the children at her nursery class. Also in 2008, Le Thi Le Vy, a babysitter, who just finished the fifth class, caused a death to an 18-month old baby by sticking adhesive tape into the baby’s mouth. She was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Chi Lan, VietNamNet Bridge