SINGAPORE: The Singaporean couple who starved their Filipino maid for 15 months were sentenced to jail on Monday (Mar 27).
Trader Lim Choon Hong was jailed three weeks and fined S$10,000, while his wife Chong Sui Foon was jailed for three months.
The prosecutors, who asked for 12 months’ jail for each person, have indicated that they will appeal the sentences.
Lim and Chong, both 47, were found guilty in March last year of failing to provide Ms Thelma Oyasan Gawidan (pictured below) with enough food while she was working for them. Ms Gawidan was given only slices of white bread and instant noodles to eat twice a day for more than a year, causing her to lose almost 20kg in the time she worked for the Lim family.
The maid’s pleas for more food fell on deaf ears, and she had nowhere to turn to for help as her employers took her mobile phone and passport from her.
In April 2014, Ms Gawidan managed to escape, running until she found a pay phone from which she called a friend. She was then taken to HOME, a welfare organisation for migrant workers in Singapore.
She weighed just 29kg at that point.
Lim and Chong pleaded guilty to starving Ms Gawidan three days into their trial in December 2015.
In her defence, Chong claimed her mental illness was to blame as she suffered from an eating disorder as a teen and has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as an adult.
However, District Judge Low Wee Ping decided in December last year, after hearing from three psychiatrists, that Chong’s OCD was “not linked” to her behaviour towards Ms Gawidan. While Chong deprived Ms Gawidan of food, she force-fed her husband and children, psychiatrists said.
Judge Low found Chong’s behaviour had “stemmed from and reflected a selective and discriminatory perception and treatment of the victim”, and had nothing to do with her OCD.
The couple had paid their former domestic helper S$20,000 as part of a settlement agreement which precludes the maid from suing them in civil proceedings.
Prosecutors accused Lim and Chong of using the payment as “a tool to get a lower sentence”, pointing out the offer was made only after Judge Low said he was considering a jail term.
“Does this mean you can pay your way out, because you can afford it?” the judge questioned.
For failing to provide Ms Gawidan with enough food, the couple, who have four children, could have been jailed up to one year and/or fined S$10,000.
