Selina Lum
Tue, Jun 03, 2008
The Straits Times
Husband and wife jailed for abusing maid
AN aircraft engineer was sentenced to four weeks' jail while his homemaker wife was given six weeks for abusing their Indonesian maid.
The couple, who had denied the allegations but were found guilty after a seven-day trial, are appealing against their convictions.
They have each been granted bail of $10,000 pending their appeal hearing.
Lim Yi Khung, 42, who works for Singapore Airlines, was charged with kicking 25-year-old Ms Ida Lestari Ningsih, on both sides of her hips at the family Changi condominium on Feb 19 last year.
His Malaysian wife, Aileen Khaw Lay Hoon, 31, a former SIA flight attendant, faces three charges of abusing the maid on separate occasions between Feb 15 to Feb 27 last year.
She was accused of squeezing the maid's breast, hitting the maid's eye, grabbing the maid's hair and hitting her head on the floor.
The couple have three children, aged between eight months and five years around the time of the offences.
The maid started working for the couple in March 2006, while Khaw was expecting her third child, the court heard.
On Feb 27 last year, the maid ran away, with bruises on her forehead, and sought help from the condominium manager, who called the police.
The couple were charged and prosecutors accused them of assaulting the maid because they were displeased with her work.
In court, the maid testified that Lim kicked her after she had placed a pail, used for washing rags, in the kitchen sink, which was forbidden in the household.
The maid said Khaw grabbed her breast after scolding her for scratching her head while refilling an electric flask. The maid said Khaw fisted her right eye after complaining that she was falling asleep.
Khaw's final act of abuse, grabbing the maid's hair and knocking her head on the floor, came after the housewife scolded her for wringing out a wet handkerchief with one hand.
That was when the maid decided to run away, jumping out of the window of the first-floor apartment.
Both husband and wife fought the maid's accusation, insisting that the alleged assaults never took place.
The defence sought to portray Ms Ida as a scheming maid who made up the accounts of abuse so that she could run away and avoid paying $10 penalties for each mistake she made.
The couple were found guilty last month.