SINGAPORE — A 32-year-old woman was sentenced to 21 months’ jail yesterday for abusing her domestic helper, in what a judge described as one of the most distressing maid abuse cases here.

Chan Huey Fern was tried on five of 12 counts of causing hurt to her domestic worker, Ms Juwarti. She was convicted of voluntarily causing hurt last month.

The offences took place in 2010 at Chan’s flat at Buangkok Link.

The court heard that she punched the Indonesian maid in the eye and kicked her body as well as her private parts until she bled.

When Ms Juwarti, then 25, was unable to sit or stand because of the pain, Chan threatened to torture her the next day if she did not walk upright.

District Judge Low Wee Ping told the court that Chan’s behaviour was both deplorable and repugnant. He also noted that she was unremorseful and had put Ms Juwarti through the trauma of a trial.

Chan has denied the charges and maintained that the injuries the maid suffered were either “self-inflicted” or from an “unknown external source”.

Her lawyer, Mr Louis Lim, told reporters that his client will be appealing against both the conviction and sentence.

In meting out the sentence, the judge noted that Ms Juwarti had suffered a systematic pattern of abuse over a period of nine months, with the scale escalating over time.

The court had heard evidence during the trial that Chan had committed acts such as pushing the maid’s head against the edge of a toilet door. Ms Juwarti eventually ran away and called an ambulance.

Chan, who appeared expressionless as she stood in the dock, shook her head occasionally as the judge read the grounds of decision on her sentence.

The remaining charges have been stood down, and Chan is currently out on bail of S$20,000.