Housewife found guilty of abusing maid who slept in balcony of flat
Infuriated that her family’s domestic helper had used up the Korean instant noodles, the woman assaulted the maid by pulling on her hair, pinching her chin and shaking her from side to side.
Two days later, 58-year-old housewife Karen Ching Pei Yi again lost her temper at 29-year-old Heni Solekhah, causing the Indonesian domestic helper to flee her employer’s home a day later.
At the State Courts on Thursday (15 March), Ching was convicted on two counts of voluntarily causing hurt to Solekhah. One count of using criminal force on the victim, by kicking her in her buttocks, will be taken into consideration for Ching’s sentencing.
Solekhah, who was employed by Ching on 15 January 2016, slept on a mattress on the balcony of the family’s HDB flat. Besides the two, the home was also occupied by Ching’s husband, son, daughter and son-in-law.
According to the prosecution, Solekhah was so bogged down with household chores assigned to her by Ching that she would only sleep from 1am to 5.45am daily. She was also given an allowance instead of her weekly day off and was forbidden from owning a mobile phone, the prosecution told the court.
At around dinner time on 25 June 2016, Solekhah was in the kitchen cleaning when Ching entered looking for instant noodles that she had bought from Korea. Solekhah told her that she had cooked the last packets for Ching’s son and husband at their request.
This angered Ching, who began scolding the victim for not following her instructions to not let anyone else have the noodles. She then grabbed Solekhah’s hair and pulled the latter’s head from side to side, and also tugged her back and forth by yanking on her shirt. Ching then pinched Solekhah on her lower chin, causing the victim to sustain a small bruise.
A while later, Ching called Solekhah into the living room where she resumed abusing her in the same manner. She told the victim to continue her chores after forbidding her to tell anyone about the incident.
Two days later, at around 9pm, Ching became unhappy with Solekhah once again and began berating the latter. She scolded Solekhah for changing the mattress protector on her bed without her instruction and for washing all the bedsheets at the same time instead of in batches.
Ching then pulled on the the victim’s hair and pinched her ear, causing her to feel sharp pain.
Ching then called Solekhah into the kitchen where she continued abusing her in the same manner. She also pinched Solekhah all over her body and pushed her.
When Ching’s daughter and son-in-law returned home, she ceased her physical abuse but continued scolding the victim. Solekhah sustained a small scratch and bruise on her ear from the incident.
A day later, Solekhah packed her bags and left in a taxi. She sought refuge at the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Services Centre. She was later sent to the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for a medical check-up and an MOM officer lodged a police report.
Ching’s case has been adjourned to 5 April pending a psychiatric report.
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