SINGAPORE — A district judge ruled on Tuesday (Jan 28) that a foreign domestic helper, who accused her employer of allowing her to stand on a second-storey glass awning to clean it, was not “unusually convincing” and had given uncorroborated evidence of the incident.

The employer, Australian national Belinda Huber, was acquitted of one charge under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.

The 37-year-old — also known as Ms Belinda Tran — is a director of Huber’s, the parent company of local high-end butchery Huber’s Butchery.

She had claimed trial to failing to provide safe working conditions by allowing her Filipina domestic worker, Ms Taculad Rose Mae Mata, to clean the awning over the porch of her Goldhill Avenue home in the Bukit Timah area.

This allegedly happened between early June and July 4 in 2017. 

A photograph of Ms Mata standing on the awning — taken by Ms Huber’s neighbour’s maid — went viral online soon after the incident. 

The other maid, Ms Villegas Lyn Balbao, testified that she saw Ms Mata on the awning and asked if she wanted her to take a photograph. 

Ms Mata did not object and asked her to pass the photograph to the Ministry of Manpower but Ms Balbao posted it on Facebook instead.

Ms Balbao also testified that Ms Mata had expressed her intention to change employers while working for Ms Huber.

On Tuesday, District Judge Salina Ishak said that prosecutors had failed to establish their case beyond a reasonable doubt and that she did not find Ms Mata unusually convincing “in view of internal and external inconsistencies in her account”.

During the trial, Ms Mata testified that Ms Huber did not tell her to clean the awning by standing on it but did not stop her from doing so on two occasions and instructed her to hold on to the railing instead.

The maid also gave evidence that Ms Huber’s second helper, Ms Carrell Dela Cruz, showed her that method. 

Both maids are no longer employed at Ms Huber’s household.

Ms Huber’s lawyers argued that she did not see Ms Mata cleaning the awning in that manner and did not allow her to do so either.

Ms Mata had climbed onto the awning to clean it on her own volition and Ms Huber could not be held liable for that, they also argued.

When she took the witness stand, Ms Huber said that if she had seen Ms Mata doing so, she would have told her to come back. 

If convicted, Ms Huber could have been jailed up to a month, fined up to S$10,000 or both.