S'pore man jailed, caned over death of RI maid
S'pore man jailed, caned over death of RI maid
Rosana Gulzar Mohd, Agence France-Presse, Singapore
An "inhuman" Singapore man who lost track of the number of times
he beat and burned his 19-year-old Indonesian maid was sentenced
to more than 18 years' jail and caning Friday after the teenager
died from extensive injuries.
Ng Hua Chye, 47, admitted repeatedly attacking Muawanatul
Chasanah whose body was found covered in scars, bruises and scald
marks.
"There were so many times that I beat her, (I) lost count of
them," the father of two told police when arrested.
Even his lawyer, Subhas Anandan, described the treatment of
the maid as "horrendous".
Singapore's first case of a maid being repeatedly beaten until
she died has sparked outrage in the city-state, where the
judiciary has expressed alarm at the escalating incidents of maid
abuse.
An autopsy report detailed more than 200 injuries Muawanatul
suffered at the hands of Ng over a period of nine months,
starting in March last year.
She had scars over her body where she had been hit by a
plastic pipe, cuts in her mouth from being punched, scald marks
over her chest, neck and back from hot water, and sores from
being jabbed with a hammer. He also burned her with lit
cigarettes.
Muawanatul died last December from a ruptured stomach after
being punched and kicked in the abdomen.
"How do you describe a man who would subject a helpless human
being to such pain and suffering? Your Honour, only one word,
inhuman," deputy public prosecutor Lee Sing Lit said in the High
Court.
Judge Choo Han Teck sentenced Ng to a total of 18 years and
six months in jail, plus 12 strokes of the cane for manslaughter
and various assault charges.
The sentence took into account "the misery she had to endure
for so many months up to the last days of her life", Choo said,
as Ng's wife wept at the back of the court.
"The picture of her beaten and undernourished body has muted
the eloquence of your counsel."
Ng, a freelance tour guide, believed the young Indonesian had
been stealing food meant for his infant daughter.
But the court was told Muawanatul was barely given enough to
eat, subsisting sometimes on a packet of noodles for lunch or
dinner.
She weighed 50 kilograms (110 pounds) when she arrived in
Singapore two years ago, and was just 36 kilograms, malnourished
and dehydrated when she died.
Ng was originally charged with murder, which would have led to
an automatic death sentence if convicted, but later agreed to
plead guilty to manslaughter.
Irate Singaporeans, writing to the Straits Times online
edition, have demanded the death sentence for Ng.
"He has to be scalded like what he did to his maid. Then,
starve him and cane him and punch him for a period of nine
months. After that, continue with the punishment of the 40
strokes of cane in two days and hanging," wrote Rachel Ee.
Sierra Jeep said Ng "deserves and should be given the death
penalty. A sadistic animal like him should not have the privilege
to continue to grace the face of this earth".
According to government figures, convictions for abuse of
maids rose from four in 1997 to 39 in 2000, despite repeated
warnings from judges against ill-treatment of domestic helpers.
In May, a 35-year-old woman who pinched her Indonesian maid's
breasts and nipples in a fit of rage was jailed for three months,
while in March a woman received a five-year sentence for biting a
nipple off her Indonesian maid.
About 140,000 foreign domestic workers, mainly from poor
families in the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, are
employed in affluent Singapore.