Straits Times Indonesia, July 12, 2011
Singapore. An Indonesian maid working in Singapore who wrote in her diary that she was happy working for a family of four here went on a rampage with a knife and chopper, using them against her employer's seven-year-old daughter.
This was in 2009, when Kumaeroh, who goes by only one name, was eight months into her job. She was preparing the girl for school on Sept 23 that year when she snapped without provocation, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and started stabbing the child.
Then she took a chopper and slashed the girl on her wrist.
Yesterday, Kumaeroh, now 26, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted culpable homicide and was jailed for eight years by the High Court.
The maximum penalty is 15 years.
The victim in the attack, who cannot be named, is now in Primary 3. She has recovered, but still neither eats well nor is comfortable with strangers, said her mother, aged 42.
Yesterday, the court heard that about three months before the incident, Kumaeroh had it in her head that her employers had hired someone to spy on her, and believed video cameras in the flat were monitoring her.
In sentencing, Justice Woo Bih Lisaid he took into account the Indonesian's tender age, her background, her state of mind and that she was working in Singapore, away from her family.
On the other hand, the judge said, there was no evidence for her perception that she was being spied on.
He further noted there was no suggestion she was abused, nor were her work conditions tougher than those of other maids.
The court heard that her employers in fact made efforts to make her a part of the family, such as by celebrating her birthday.
On the day of the attack, the maid and the girl were at home; the girl's parents were at work, while her elder sister was in school.
After getting the girl changed for school, the maid went to get her school bag - but also picked up a kitchen knife, with which she stabbed the girl repeatedly, ignoring her cries.
The girl struggled free, but fell. Kumaeroh then pinned her to the floor and continued stabbing her in her front and back.
The maid then took a chopper from the kitchen, pressed the girl's left palm against the floor and slashed her wrist.
When the maid did not show up at school to drop off the girl and pick up her elder sister, the older girl called home. When the maid hung up on her, she called her father.
The father called home and was told by Kumaeroh that the girl was sick, but he heard his younger daughter in the background, asking him to come home promptly.
He rushed home to see her bleeding on the floor. She was sent to hospital in an ambulance.
Pleading for leniency, Kumaeroh's lawyer Mohamed Muzammil said his client left her village in 2006 for Malaysia, where she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather who was there.
She later spent five months in jail for being in Malaysia without valid travel and employment papers.
The lawyer added that she deeply regrets what she did.
Speaking to reporters after the sentencing, the girl's mother said the sentence was fair.
She added that the family no longer employed a maid, and she now works only part-time as a customer service assistant.
Her husband, a 45-year-old project manager, said they do not accept the maid's apology. The mother added: "We will never forgive her."
Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia
di 12 jul 2011 - 8:47