Husband says wife with OCD had no 'evil intention' of starving Filipino maid

They had no intention of depriving their Filipino maid of food and causing her to lose 20kg during her stint in Singapore.

That was the testimony Wednesday (16 Dec) of Lim Choon Hong, the former employer of Thelma Oyasan Gawidan.

Holding back his tears as he took the stand, Lim said that Chong was a simple person with only primary school education, and she had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and anorexia nervosa.

“It definitely was not because of my wife's evil intention or wickedness in her heart. It cannot be seen as she did it out of purpose," said the 47 year-old businessmen on the third day of the trial.

“Why would you want to deprive another human being of food? It was never like that," he said.

Gawidan claimed that her former employer had starved her and given her very little food when she was working for them for 15 months from January 2013.

The Filipina ran away from Lim’s residence on 18 April last year and sought refuge at a shelter run by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migrant Economics (Home).

Lim added that his wife was diagnosed with anorexia when she was 17 years old, and he had only discovered the condition after they got married.

Lim and Chong face one charge each of contravening the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations 2012. If convicted, Lim and Chong both face a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to 12 months, or both.

Diagnosed with OCD

Lim said that he took 47-year-old Chong to a psychiatrist after discovering that his wife was obsessed with cleanliness. The psychiatrist then diagnosed her with OCD.

According to Lim, Chong would spend hours cleaning a wardrobe, as she would have to first empty the wardrobe first and then place the clothes at a clean place before proceeding to wipe the wardrobe clean.

The whole process he said, could take hours to complete and it affected the family greatly.

Chong’s obsession with cleanliness meant that there was hardly any cooking done at home with the family buying packed food to consume at home.

“I have four children and my second boy ran away in 2010 due to my wife’s tendencies,” he said, adding that his wife is currently on medication.

It was Chong’s condition that led to Gawidan being asked shower at a public toilet near the swimming pool of their condominium.

“She was not the only one who bathed at the public toilet. I do that too. It is because if we shower at home, we need to clean up after that," he said. “My wife do not even want to see a single strand of hair in the toilet after we shower."

Wife runs the household

When questioned by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sellakumaran about the decision making in his Orchard Road condominium residence, Lim admitted that his wife was in charge of running the household including deciding on Gawidan’s daily food intake.

“I don’t interfere with her decision(s) and I did not notice that Thelma (Gawidan) had lost weight drastically in November 2014. I assumed that she was eating her meals regularly as she did not complain to me," he said.

“She did tell me something about the food in genera,l but I told her not to intervene as it is my wife who decides when it comes to food preparation in the household,” he recalled.

Maid agency owner's testimony

Earlier on Wednesday morning, the owner of the maid agency that assisted Lim to secure the services of Gawidan in 2013 took the stand.

Toh Ah Choon, the owner of KC Toh Enterprises, said that Lim had previously used his services to secure maids in the past.

Toh said that Lim had employed a few maids prior to Gawidan and highlighted a complaint made by the first maid that worked for the family.

“The first Indonesian maid did say that she was only given instant noodles when she was working for Lim,” he said.

Toh added that he was informed of Gawidan’s conditions by the Philippines embassy and immediately attempted to contact Lim.

“We tried calling him but there was no answer,” he said.

The trial is adjourned until 30 December for a pre-trial conference to decide on the next set of hearing dates.