Woman jailed for asking maid to slap herself thrice and say she has 'no brain'

SINGAPORE: A 63-year-old woman scolded her maid daily and asked her to slap herself as well as admit to having "no brain".

A neighbour heard the daily berating and called the police. When officers arrived, the maid abuser challenged their authority to take her helper away.

Ang Poh Geok, 63, was sentenced to a month's jail on Tuesday (Dec 20) for one count of voluntarily causing hurt to a maid. 

A second charge of using criminal force on the maid, by struggling with her and causing her to bump her head against the wall, was taken into consideration with her plea of guilt.

The court heard that Ang was home in her flat with the victim, a 25-year-old maid, on Oct 6, 2020.

She was seated at the dining area while the victim was carrying out her duties in the kitchen.

Ang called the victim to come over and started scolding her for not packing various bags in exactly the way she expected.

The victim did not retort and repacked the bags in silence, but Ang continued to work herself up, said the prosecutor.

"If cannot pack properly, put down," said Ang in closed-circuit television footage played in court.

"I give you work to do eh, you got do properly? Slap yourself."

The victim complied, but Ang was not satisfied.

"Slap is hard hard one, understand. Understand?! Just now you call that one slap or sayang? ... I got no time, don't make me more angry, slap yourself hard hard," she said.

The victim was shown in footage slapping herself a second and third time, with the sound of each strike audible.

"Every time must like that," Ang said. 

She then ordered the victim to repeat disparaging remarks after her.

"You got no brain corright (sic). Tell me 'yes I got no brain, God keep already'. Tell me," Ang said in the footage.

"I got no brain," the victim repeated after her.

"Because ... you don't want God give you brain. You don't want God give you any good thing," Ang continued. "You want bad thing."

The victim repeated these words after Ang.

"Very good," said Ang.

NEIGHBOUR LODGES REPORT

The police went down to the flat after receiving a neighbour's report of possible maid abuse.

The neighbour said a female voice could be heard shouting at a maid on a daily basis.

Police officers saw the victim teary-eyed and appearing fearful.

Ang admitted to scolding the victim on a daily basis. After assessing that the maid could be at risk, the police told Ang that they would be making arrangements to take the helper away from the flat.

At this, Ang repeatedly challenged their authority; but the police escorted the victim away.

Closed-circuit television footage of the offences was later retrieved from the camera in Ang's home.

The prosecutor asked for at least a month's jail, saying that Ang had asked the victim to slap herself not once but three times.

Her demeanour in the video showed that the offence was conducted with malice and was not a case of spontaneous lapse of self-control, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Yanying.

When the police went down, Ang was uncooperative and challenged their authority to take the maid away, added Ms Tan.

This was also not a one-off incident, with the accused herself admitting to shouting at the maid on a daily basis.

In CCTV footage, a look of "anger and malice" on Ang's face as she stared right at the camera showed her brazenness and that she had no care as to whether her actions were captured or not, said Tan.

DEFENCE'S BACKGROUND

Ang's lawyer asked for two to three weeks' jail on account of his client's psychiatric history.

He said Ang was the main caregiver to her mother, who died in 2019 after being bedridden for two years. 

After that, a general practitioner assessed Ang to be suffering from depressive symptoms with suicidal thoughts, and referred her to a psychiatrist.

However, Ang did not want to see a psychiatrist due to the stigma.

As her lawyer was talking about this, Ang began crying in the dock.

Her lawyer said Ang reported symptoms of poor mood and loss of weight after her mother's death, and was later diagnosed with adjustment disorder with depressed mood. She also had a grief reaction after her mother died.

According to Ang's husband, she also suffers from eczema and is allergic to dust. There was also evidence of some obsessive compulsive traits that led her to give specific instructions on how to clean the house, said the defence.

In response, the prosecutor said the diagnosis of adjustment disorder with depressed mood was after the alleged offences and had "nothing to do" with the offences.

"In any case, while we are sorry for the loss she had to go through, it is evident from her conduct of her life subsequently that she can still carry on with activities," said Ms Tan.

"So it's not a case where she's been so crippled by her grief or an adjustment disorder which only came on after the offences and appears to be a result of being prosecuted for her offences."

Ms Tan added that a month's jail could also be considered lenient.

District Judge Bala Reddy agreed with the prosecution. Speaking to Ang, he said: "You have humiliated and degraded the victim, ordering her to slap herself three times, then belittled her intelligence and self-respect."

He said the condescending acts were "brazenly carried out" in plain sight of the CCTV camera, and said there was a clear abuse of authority.

He allowed Ang to speak to her husband before she was taken away.