Woman on trial for abusing 2 maids accused of using toes to pinch 1 victim

SINGAPORE — A woman who is accused of physically abusing two domestic helpers in her home, including allegedly by pinching with her toes and hitting with sticks, claimed trial to eight charges on Tuesday (8 December).

Tan Lee Hoon, 56, faces three charges and five charges of voluntarily causing hurt to Filipinas Joan Lozares Lizardo, 33, and Jenefer Arangote Vegafria, 39, respectively, at her home in Sentosa Cove. The Singaporean denied all charges, with her lawyer Sunil Sudheesan saying in court that the maids had changed their allegations a number of times.

Tan is accused of kicking Lizardo’s chest, hitting her head with her hand, and hitting her torso with a stick in 2018. In September the same year, she allegedly pinched Vegafria’s right bicep, stomach, chest, left arm, and right thigh.

Tan came to court dressed in a headband and a pink Barbie down coat, with blue plastic sunglasses hanging from her neck.

According to court documents, Tan’s husband had employed Lizardo in October 2015 and Vegafria in August 2018.

On 17 October 2018, a staff member from the Ministry of Manpower called the police hotline stating that they received a call from a helper claiming her friend, Vegafria, was being beaten by her employer. The caller added that she had photos of the victim’s bruises.

The first witness to take the stand, a female investigation officer, Assistant Superintendent (ASP) Lynn Tan Wei Ping, testified that she had responded to the call on the same day and met the two victims at home. Following their account, the police took 35 photographs around the house, including that of the garden, the dining room, the stairway and a bedroom, where the alleged abuse incidents had occurred.

Asked by Deputy Public Prosecutors Kumaresan Gohulabalan if there were CCTVs in the house, ASP Tan said that there were several installed within the house.

ASP Tan said that her colleagues seized the CCTV servers four days later to see if they could retrieve any footage of the incidents but were unable to do so as there was no hard drive.

She elaborated that she had checked with the company that installed the CCTV. The boss of the company said that neither Tan nor her family initiated any contact to make changes to the CCTV, and the system should contain the hard drive and be in working condition, she added.

Asked why she made the check with the company, ASP Tan said that the CCTV should have had footage stored for a length of time and that she found it “off” that the CCTV did not have “something in the server to capture whatever was on date itself”.

After attending to the Sentosa home, ASP Tan took the two maids to a hospital where they underwent medical checkups. Both were then brought to a police station to have their statements recorded.

According to ASP Tan, Vegafria had sent her some six to seven photos of her alleged injuries that she had taken with her phone. However, the IO did not note when the photos were taken.

During Sunil’s cross examination of ASP Tan, the lawyer referred to Tan’s charges, in which one stated that she used a stick to beat Lizardo. He asked ASP Tan why no sticks were seized from the Sentosa home.

ASP Tan replied that the maids told her that Tan had disposed all the sticks that she had allegedly used to inflict the injuries.

“From my recollection they told me multiple sticks. When the sticks (were) spoiled the defendant will ask them to pick new ones and when the sticks break the defendant will ask them to replace it. (They were) either thrown away or hidden from sight from where the victim knows (to find them),” ASP Tan added.

ASP Tan told the court that she had only found out about the sticks after 17 October, but that she had not returned to the Sentosa home to look for the alleged weapons.

Sunil then referred to the photos that were taken and asked ASP Tan about the alleged abuse that had occurred in the corresponding locations taken in the photos. ASP Tan then told the court more details about the alleged incidents of abuse, including how Tan had allegedly kicked one of the maids while the latter was helping her to put on a pair of shoes, and how Tan had allegedly pinched a victim with her toes.

In one instance, the maids were told to take down decorations but an item dropped, allegedly prompting Tan to hit them.

When Sunil asked about the number of allegations of abuse that happened within each respective location as shown in the photos, ASP Tan said she was unable to recall.

Sunil said, “The reason why I’m asking you is, my case is that the victims changed their story a number of times. Would you agree with that?”

ASP Tan replied, “During my course of investigation I don’t think they (did)...I just recorded whatever was related to me in their statements.”

Sunil then asked, “So whether they changed their stories or not you cannot tell us now?” ASP Tan said she was “not in a position to say.” She added that the maids did not change their versions in the two statements she recorded from each of them, just that the maids had added more details in their second statements.

Sunil then pointed out that he was “disturbed” by the alleged incident of toe-pinching and asked ASP Tan where it took place. The lawyer pointed out to the court that Tan’s charges did not state that she had used her toes to pinch any maid.

The trial will continue on Wednesday with Vegafria scheduled to testify.

A charge of voluntarily causing hurt carries a jail term of up to two years, and/or a fine of up to $5,000. If Tan is convicted of causing hurt to a maid in her household, her punishment may be enhanced by up to one and a half times.

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