S'pore woman jailed for beating RI maid

S'pore woman jailed for beating RI maid

SINGAPORE: A 44-year-old Singapore woman has been jailed for three months after she pleaded guilty to hitting her Indonesian maid with a TV remote control and a broom as punishment for her mistakes, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Singapore's Subordinates Court also fined Lee Boon 4,500 Singapore dollars (US$2,700) on Thursday for beating Supiah Wirya Reja over a six-month period that began in March last year, The Straits Times newspaper said.

The paper said Lee abused Reja because she did not follow orders. She hit Reja on the head with a television remote control and later used a broom and an assortment of items, including a shampoo bottle and a milk carton to beat the woman, it added.

Separately, a different Singapore woman pleaded guilty on Thursday to punching another Indonesian domestic helper in the eye for serving drinks to her children that were past their expiry date, The Straits Times said.

Pauline Ang, 33, will be sentenced June 1 on four counts of abuse toward Liswiarti Kartono, 24. Apart from hitting Kartono, Ang caned her maid for mixing towels in the washing machine with other clothing, the paper said.

The district court heard she poked her maid's forehead until she bled, the report said.

More than 140,000 maids, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, are employed in Singapore, a wealthy Southeast Asian city-state. --AP