Maid who killed her socialite employer gets 18 years’ jail

SINGAPORE — On her first day working for socialite Nancy Gan in March 2014, Indonesian domestic helper Dewi Sukowati was poked on her head and hit with a broomstick by her employer.

Five days later, Dewi got a lashing for serving Gan water using the wrong type of tray. Reacting in fury, Dewi, then 18, hit her 69-year-old employer’s head against the wall, fracturing her skull, and then drowned her in the pool of her bungalow at Bukit Timah.

Dewi pleaded guilty to culpable homicide not amounting to murder on Tuesday (May 31) and was sentenced to 18 years’ jail.

The court heard that Dewi had incurred Gan’s wrath on the morning of March 19, 2014 by serving her water on a plastic tray instead of a silver tray as instructed. Gan splashed the water on Dewi’s face and threw the tray on the floor.

When Dewi bent down to pick the tray, Gan snatched it from her and hit Dewi’s head with it, then threatened to cut her salary if she repeated her mistakes.

According to court documents, Dewi lost control of herself at this point and grabbed her employer by her hair to swing her head against the wall. Gan collapsed unconscious from the blow and was bleeding profusely from the back of her head.

When she heard Gan’s heart beating weakly, Dewi got worried that she would be arrested should Gan regain consciousness and call the police, the court heard.

Hoping to disguise her crime as a suicide, Dewi decided to throw Gan into the pool.

While dragging Gan from her bedroom to the pool, Dewi recalled misgivings towards her employer and “worked herself up into another state of fury”, the court was told.

In an act which the prosecution said was “designed to kill”, Dewi slammed the back of Gan’s head against a ceramic step, causing more bleeding.

After throwing Gan into the pool with her face down, Dewi mopped the floor repeatedly to clean up the blood trail, got rid of every blood-stained item she saw in the house, and soaked her blood-stained clothing in the toilet, the court heard.

She then sought help from a despatch rider passing by the house, who called the police.

Dewi, who was initially accused of murder, had her charge reduced after a psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health found that she suffered from “acute stress reaction”, a psychological disorder resulting from exposure to trauma.

The condition, coupled with social factors such as her young age and history of abuse by her father, may have “significantly impaired her judgment, impulse control and mental responsibility” during the offence, said Dr Kenneth Koh from the IMH.

Prosecutors sought a sentence of 20 years, arguing that Dewi’s mental condition does not warrant a shorter term of imprisonment.

Dewi had launched a “brutal” and “deliberate” attack on a vulnerable victim, Deputy Public Prosecutors Chee Min Ping and James Low told the court.

“Her mental condition at no point prevented her from realising the gravity and consequences of her actions,” said the prosecution.

In mitigation, defence lawyer Mohamed Muzammil Mohamed said Dewi had not gone for the mandated training and was not given enough time to learn the ropes of her job and adjust to life in a foreign country.

For committing culpable homicide, she could have been jailed for life.