'A miracle she pulled through': Singapore police investigator on 'slave' who was nearly tortured to death

SINGAPORE: He has covered multiple homicide cases in over two decades with the Singapore Police Force, so for Deputy Superintendent Chris Lee, it was a miracle when a 27-year-old victim survived her almost-fatal injuries.

"Based on the homicide cases I see, it’s a miracle that she actually pulled through," DSP Lee told CNA in an interview on the brutal abuse case. "It was really bad."

The woman, who turns 34 this year, had sought refuge with a family she considered her own. However, after one of the daughters accused her of making sexual advances on her husband, the family turned on her.

Over about one-and-a-half years from mid-2016, the Ismail family tortured and enslaved the victim. They knocked out her teeth, fractured her toes and poured hot oil and scalding hot water on her.

By the time one of the daughters called for an ambulance in January 2018, the victim was dying – sepsis had set into her wounds, which had been left to rot and left large raw patches on her body.

Dark liquid poured out from her orifices, and she was shifted to be chained in the toilet naked from the waist down because of the smell she emanated and the wounds she sustained from being scalded in the private parts.

DSP Lee, the lead investigating officer on the case, recalled how one of the offenders – Hasniza Ismail – called the police on Jan 16, 2018.

Hasniza gave a false narrative that the family had agreed on – that the victim had shown up at the family's flat about two weeks ago with a fever and covered with scars resembling abuse.

"The initial account provided by Hasniza did not align with the police's preliminary findings," said DSP Lee.

"She claimed that the victim only stayed with the family for two weeks and was injured before arriving. She also claimed that the victim refused medical attention as she was 'wanted' by the police."

However, police investigations found that the victim had travelled to Malaysia with the Ismails multiple times between 2015 and 2017.

Medical reports that came back on the victim's injuries also contradicted Hasniza's story.

Hasniza was the first to be arrested. After that, the police summoned another four family members for interviews.

CHALLENGES OF INVESTIGATION

DSP Lee had to mobilise about 10 officers to conduct the separate interviews concurrently.

"They are very experienced officers, so they knew what I wanted. So after we interviewed, the sequence of events we knew there were some discrepancies in certain statements and that was when we started probing more," said the 50-year-old officer.

"One of the siblings told us that they witnessed Haslinda slapping the victim. That triggered us to also subsequently arrest Haslinda and Haslinda subsequently implicated Hasmah. And that’s how we arrested five – Hasniza was the first, followed by Haslinda, Hasmah, Iski and Iskandar."

He was referring to matriarch Hasmah Sulong, another daughter Haslinda Ismail, and Hasmah's sons, Muhammad Iskandar Ismail and Muhammad Iski Ismail.

Despite the family's efforts to fabricate a consistent story, the investigators uncovered inconsistencies that pointed to Haslinda as one of the main culprits.

It later emerged that Haslinda had been the first to abuse the victim, as she suspected the victim of performing a sex act on her husband.

This allegation was never confirmed, DSP Lee said.

The forensic evidence and medical reports suggested a "more complex scenario of abuse", making it clear that more than one person was involved, he said.

"We held case conferences each night for a week. These sessions were crucial for deconflicting any discrepancies in the statements provided and coordinating our next steps," he said.

Certain tools used in the abuse, such as pliers, chains and a metal plate fixed on the wall, had been removed by the abusers. The information only emerged in interviews with other family members.

"Another challenge was determining the exact dates of the abuse, as the prolonged period made pinpointing specific dates almost impossible," DSP Lee said.

"To address this, we identified festive periods such as New Year, Christmas, Hari Raya Haji. These prominent dates, which the victim could remember, were crucial in helping us to reconstruct the timeline of events, as some of the abuses occurred in Malaysia."

Around the Hari Raya Haji period in September 2017, Haslinda forced the victim to stand in the kitchen overnight without sleeping or using the toilet.

The victim could not control her bladder and Haslinda retaliated by punching, slapping and hitting her with a broomstick, hanger and towel.

She tied the victim's limbs with cable ties and made her continue standing in the kitchen in her soiled trousers even when other family members arrived for the Hari Raya celebrations.

When Hasmah arrived with two packets of rice noodles for the victim, Haslinda threw away one packet and urinated into the other, which she made the victim eat.

VICTIM WAS NOT EXPECTED TO MAKE IT PAST THE WEEKEND

A day or two after the victim was admitted to Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and transferred to the burns unit, the police were told that she was in critical condition.

"The doctor ... gave us a medical report indicating that she will pass on over the weekend," said DSP Lee.

The victim was dangerously ill with sepsis from burns to 30 per cent of her body and pneumonia, complicated by adult respiratory distress syndrome.

She had large lacerations on her scalp and was covered in old and new abrasions over her body.

Her face was covered with lacerations, her ears were deformed, she could not see properly in one eye, and she had 10 missing teeth.

She was admitted to the intensive care unit, sedated and extensively intubated and was expected to die.

Based on this, the police prioritised gathering immediate evidence to build a strong case, said DSP Lee.

But they were stymied by the family members' lies and the disposal of potential evidence.

On the ninth day of the victim's hospitalisation, the medical team reported that her condition had stabilised, even though she remained non-verbal, said DSP Lee.

He sent an officer to check if the victim was able to corroborate the investigation team's suspicions that the Ismails were behind the abuse.

The police had already arrested the family members involved and remanded them by this time.

Recalling the victim's condition, DSP Lee said: "She was only able to nod her head. Each time we said certain things we were asking her to give certain indications – moving the fingers, nodding the head. That’s the indication she gave us when we mentioned the name Haslinda."

When he first saw the victim, she was bandaged all over to prevent further infection to her septic wounds, including around her face.

"It was horrific," said the seasoned investigator. "It was really horrific."

The woman had large patches of raw, weeping wounds all over her body, including just above her buttocks and around her genital area.

It later emerged that Haslinda had poured hot oil on her, and Hasmah had inflicted the near-fatal injuries by splashing boiling water over her genital area.

The Ismails did not take the victim to the doctor after inflicting each injury. Instead, they applied Dettol and cream on her wounds.

"Everybody said it was a miracle that she managed to pull through," DSP Lee said.

Because the victim survived, the case did not become a homicide and was classified as grievous hurt.

DSP Lee said he thought she survived because she was young, and because the doctors did their best to treat her wounds. They also sent her to the Singapore National Eye Centre for her eye and got dentists to try to fix her teeth.

The doctors wanted to help her "feel good" because of the prolonged abuse she had suffered, he said.

NINE MONTHS OF STATEMENT RECORDING

The victim was later evaluated at the Institute of Mental Health and found to have mild intellectual disability and deficits in intellectual functions such as reasoning, which could have affected her ability to seek help.

Because of this, as well as her injuries and trauma from the abuse, DSP Lee said it took up to nine months for him and a specially selected Malay interpreter to complete taking the victim's statements.

The victim was discharged from the hospital after three months and sent to a shelter for women, where she continued to receive medical treatments and counselling.

While she was there, DSP Lee visited almost every other day with the interpreter to speak to the victim.

To confirm a statement usually took 20 minutes, but it took up to two hours for the victim.

DSP Lee said he had to prepare her in the event of a trial – if any of the accused persons claimed trial, the victim would have to take the stand, and her statements would have to stand up to scrutiny.

He described her as very trusting, and he came to be like an elder brother to her. She still has his phone number and can contact him if she has any issues.

"I can say that myself and the interpreter are quite close to her. She’s also quite close to some of my officers in the team," he said.

"She’s somebody who wants to be friends with everybody, not knowing that sometimes people may want to make use of her."

He said she was particularly upset about her vision loss in one eye, as well as her missing teeth that had been knocked out with a hammer.

"It's a bit sad that each time she (sees) things ... each time I give her a statement she has to do this," said DSP Lee, mimicking squinting at a piece of paper held close to his face.

DSP Lee said the victim thought she deserved whatever abuse she received – that it was her fault she was punished, for things like wetting herself.

She often teared up while giving her statements, especially when talking about abuse from Haslinda or Hasmah, whom she considered a mother figure.

Hasmah was sentenced to 17 years and 10 months' jail in July, the longest jail term among the offenders, bringing the saga to a close.

DSP Lee said he is glad his team managed to uncover the truth, and that this is one reason why he does this job – to give justice to the vulnerable.

The victim is now doing well, he said.

"We are doing homicide cases, so when someone pulls through, we want her to live well," he said, adding that it was "very touching" to see the victim get back on her own two feet.