Straits Times April 24, 2012,
Singapore. An employer told her Indonesian maid that she would be caned if she made mistakes.
After she was caned repeatedly by the employer — who is a teacher — the maid sought help from a neighbor’s domestic worker.
The neighbor’s maid noticed the bruises and her employer took the 24-year-old victim to the police.
On Monday, Lee Meng Choo, 54, pleaded guilty to abusing Sri Maryati.
The teacher at Junyuan Secondary School could be spared jail, as Senior District Judge See Kee Oon ordered a pre-sentence report to gauge her suitability for probation.
Lee suffers from dysthymia, a less severe form of chronic depression.
Defence lawyer Subhas Anandan said Jerome Goh of the Institute of Mental Health and defence psychiatrist Tommy Tan had agreed that Lee was unable to fully appreciate the consequences of the offences because of her mental condition.
The lawyer also said the performance of Sri, who was hired in December 2008, was ‘abysmal’ from the start.
His client had wanted to send her back to the agency, but the maid pleaded to stay. Lee suggested that she be caned if she made mistakes — the same punishment Lee meted out to her son, now 11.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ramu Miyapan told the court that at 8 p.m. on Aug 9, 2009, the maid was caned on the buttocks for using Lee’s toothbrush to clean the wash basin.
The maid denied doing so, but was made to stand facing the front door as an added punishment. Some 15 minutes later, Lee dragged the maid by the ear into the kitchen for clogging up the kitchen sink. Sri’s ear bled.
At about 2:30 a.m. the next day, Lee asked the maid to check her son’s homework. Sri fell asleep, and at 7:30 a.m. that morning, she was caned on the buttocks and back.
About three hours later, Lee caned the maid’s palm for setting the alarm clock wrongly. Later that day, Sri sought help from the neighbor’s maid.
The case will next be heard on May 23.
If probation is not recommended, Lee could be jailed for up to three years and/or fined $7,500.
di 1 mei 2012 - 3:39