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.