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Longer jail sentences for couple who starved maid

SINGAPORE — Following an appeal by the prosecution for what it described as “manifestly inadequate” sentences, the High Court has increased the jail terms of a couple — raising it by more than 10 times for the husband — who were convicted of starving their maid.

Freelance trader Lim Choon Hong and his wife Chong Sui Foon both had their jail sentences increased to 10 months each by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. Photo: TODAY

Freelance trader Lim Choon Hong and his wife Chong Sui Foon both had their jail sentences increased to 10 months each by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. Photo: TODAY

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SINGAPORE — Following an appeal by the prosecution for what it described as “manifestly inadequate” sentences, the High Court has increased the jail terms of a couple — raising it by more than 10 times for the husband — who were convicted of starving their maid.

In March, freelance trader Lim Choon Hong, 48, was jailed three weeks and fined a maximum S$10,000, by a lower court for failing to provide adequate food to his domestic helper, Ms Thelma Oyasan Gawidan.

His wife Chong Sui Foon, 48, who was found guilty of abetting him, was jailed three months.

On Friday (Sept 15), the jail terms for both were increased to 10 months each.

The prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Sellakumaran, had asked for the maximum jail sentence of 12 months for each of them.

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, who heard the prosecution’s appeal on Friday, agreed that the sentences meted out by the lower court was inadequate.

He noted that the couple had subjected Ms Gawidan to systematic cruelty” by subjecting her to a “bizarre feeding regime”.

He noted that the couple had subjected Ms Gawidan to "systematic cruelty and the denial of her basic human dignity" by subjecting her to a “bizarre feeding regime”.

Ms Gawidan — who worked for the couple from January 2013 to April 2014 at their condominium unit near Orchard Boulevard — was given just two meals a day at fixed timings, usually plain bread and instant noodles.

These meals would also be packed for her, even when she accompanied the family overseas, the court heard.

When Ms Gawidan, now 41, asked for more food, Chong would reject her request. Sometimes, she would be given more food, but the subsequent meal would be reduced accordingly, the court heard.

In slightly more than a year, the domestic helper lost 40 per cent of her weight, dropping from 49kg to 29kg. She also stopped menstruating, and suffered emotionally and psychologically.

On the morning of April 19, 2014, Ms Gawidan — who has since returned to the Philippines — fled from her employer’s home.

She was later taken to a shelter run by Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, a non-governmental body, which then filed a complaint on her behalf with the Ministry of Manpower.

The court had also heard how she was not allowed to leave the condo, and how she had to ask for permission before drinking water.

Ms Gawidan was not allowed to use the bathrooms in the couple’s home, but had to use the toilet meant for visitors in the estate’s common areas.

During the proceedings in the lower court, the couple had offered the domestic helper S$20,000 as part of a settlement agreement, something which the prosecution charged they had done to “ ‘buy’ for themselves a lower sentence — as opposed to being made out of any sincere sense of remorse”.

The couple’s lawyer, Mr Suresh Damodara, said that the compensation paid was “spontaneous” — the couple had “immediately said yes to paying S$20,000” — and was more than what the prosecution had asked for.

Chief Justice Menon said that he felt the compensation was “sufficient”, and that some weight should be accorded to it, in mitigation, even though it might have been made, in part, to avoid heftier penalties.

He also noted that Ms Gawidan was "not only inherently vulnerable as a foreign domestic worker ... she was additionally so because it is evident from the facts that she could turn to no one for help". 

"Her pleas to the respondents were not fruitful. Nor were her efforts to reach out to the maid agency because the respondents insisted that any such attempt to contact the maid agency be conveyed by messages to be passed through them. All through this she continued to be engaged in carrying out the domestic chores," said the Chief Justice. 

On the couple’s individual culpability, he agreed with the prosecution that both of them shared equal blame.

For Lim, even though he did not carry out the offences of starvation, he “had a legal duty to safeguard the victim”, said the Chief Justice.

“But he turned the other way, and allowed cruelty to happen.”

He also stressed that it was “imperative” for foreign workers be treated decently.

Given that foreign domestic workers “do not have a voice”, Chief Justice Menon felt that it is “critical” that the law steps in to prevent abuse from “the very people who are supposed to be taking care of them”.

"If we reach the point where we do not set our face firmly against the treatment of our fellow human beings in a way that reasonable people would regard as not being in keeping with the most basic standards of decency, then we have condemned ourselves," said the Chief Justice . 

Chong will start her jail term first, with her husband serving his sentence a week after her release.

This comes as the Government said in April that it was reviewing applicable laws relating to the abuse of foreign domestic workers. The review would be completed by this year, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in Parliament.

In March, a couple were each sentenced to jail for abusing their domestic helper for over two years. Tay Wee Kiat, 39, was sentenced to two years and four months’ jail, while his wife Chia Yun Ling, 41, was given a two-month jail term.

The abuses detailed over a 14-day trial included shoving a bottle into their helper’s mouth while she was forced to stand on a stool for half an hour, and hitting her on the head with canes and bamboo sticks.

In June 2015, Jayaraman Suganthi, a 33-year-old minimart owner, was sentenced to 15 months’ jail, and ordered to pay S$4,900 in compensation for scalding her domestic helper with a red-hot ladle.

Tutor Low Gek Hong, 37, was sentenced to nine months’ jail in April 2015, for scratching her Myanmar domestic helper on the face, arms and ears for being inefficient, and using a pair of scissors to poke her left shoulder because she could not find a pillowcase that Low wanted changed. 

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