SINGAPORE : Her husband, a former police officer, recently had his sentenced doubled to 24 months last month for abusing their then 23-year-old Indonesian maid.
Now it is her turn to face the music.
On Thursday, Chua Hwee Hwa, 37, was charged in a district court with
allegedly abusing the same maid at their Woodlands flat between January
and May 2006.
Chua, who was represented by former district judge Lee Teck Leng,
remained silent during the proceedings and did not enter a plea.
Her husband, 37-year-old Lawrence Lim Hwang Ngin, was found guilty
of kicking the maid, hitting her on the head and rapping her forehead
with his knuckles on five occasions between January and May 2006.
Normally, maid abuse cases are heard at the Subordinate Court but Lim's
case was taken to the High Court because he also faced allegations of
sexual assault on the maid who had been working for his family since
2004. However, he was later acquitted of rape because of
inconsistencies in the latter's testimony.
Lim was sentenced to a year's jail in November 2008 on the other
five charges of physical abuse. But after an appeal by the prosecution,
the Court of Appeal - the highest court in the Singapore justice system
- upped the sentence to two years.
During the trial, the court heard of details of how Lim waged a
'psychological war' against the maid. Not only was she ordered her to
record her chores in a notebook hung around her neck, she was also
required to keep another notebook for recording her mistakes,
prosecutors said.
In the 114-page written judgment released last month following
Lim's new sentence, Justice V K Rajah said the Court of Appeal had
opted to take a firmer stand on bosses who terrorised their domestic
helpers.
He added: "Surely, it cannot be said that an abusive employer who
persistently mistreats and humiliates a maid and then later physically
injures her should be sentenced similarly with one who ordinarily
treats a maid well, but then on a solitary occasion loses control of
himself and then inflicts a similar injury?"
In the meantime, Chua's case will be heard at a pre-trial conference on
February 8. She could be jailed up to 18 months and/or fined up to
S$1,500 on each charge if found guilty.
- TODAY/ms
what is wrong with people nowadays.
they knew how seriously our govt take maid abuse yet people continue to do it.
stress??