Six weeks’ jail for maid who fed toddler urine-laced milk

SINGAPORE — To get her employer and his family to “listen” to her after she was reprimanded, an Indonesian maid mixed her urine into the drinking water and milk that were meant for them.

Twenty-seven-year-old Ela, who goes by one name, was sentenced to six weeks’ jail on Monday (June 6) for committing mischief by mixing her urine into the milk meant for her employer’s four-year-old child.

A similar charge for pouring her urine into the drinking water meant for her employer and his family — who cannot be named due to a court gag order — was taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that on Oct 16, her employer’s wife had noticed that the water — which she had poured from a flask and took a sip from — appeared to be slightly yellowish in colour.

She then showed it to her husband and mother-in-law, both of whom found that the water tasted odd after taking a sip.

The man then kept the flask in his bedroom so he could observe what would happen to the water, and the next day found that the liquid in the flask smelled pungent. Sensing something was amiss, the man and his wife asked the accused if “anything had happened to the water”. She replied that nothing was wrong.

The following day, the man found her washing the flask. He later realised she had taken it from their bedroom and emptied the contents before washing the flask. Ela was subsequently sent back to the maid agency.

Ela later admitted that on Oct 16, she had urinated into a small plastic cup and transferred it to a small empty bottle in the toilet.

After that, she returned to the kitchen and poured some urine out from the bottle and into a bottle cap, before adding this into the milk bottle that contained milk meant for the four-year-old.

Ela then passed the milk bottle to the toddler, who drank from it.

The prosecution told the court that Ela had admitted that she acted in that manner because she wanted to make her employer and his family “listen and be obedient” to her. This came after an earlier incident where the maid was scolded by her employer’s mother-in-law.

Ela could have been jailed up to a year and fined.