SINGAPORE: A district judge on Friday (Dec 22) ruled that despite housewife Chong Sui Foon’s OCD diagnosis, she was able “to appreciate her actions and make a conscious choice” to starve her domestic helper for 15 months.
The helper, Ms Thelma Oyasan Gawidan, weighed 29kg when she escaped in April 2014.
“There is no evidence Chong’s OCD extended to include … restricting the quantity of the victim’s food, and if I may add – starving her,” district judge Low Wee Ping said.
Chong and her husband, Lim Choon Hong, both 47, pleaded guilty in March to one charge under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act for failing to provide Ms Thelma with adequate food.
Ms Thelma, 40, lost nearly 20kg in her 15-month stint with the Lim family. She told of being given slices of white bread and instant noodles to eat twice a day for more than a year.
Ms Thelma Oyasan Gawidan lost 20 kg over a 15-month period while working for Lim Choon Hong and his wife Chong Sui Foon at their condominium in Orchard. (Photo: Jason Quah/TODAY)
The helper, who is from the Philippines, said she was “constantly hungry” and often asked Chong for more food. Chong refused, even as she over-fed her husband and children.
Her daughter told a psychiatrist Chong would “force-feed” them.
“There is also no evidence or scientific explanation to support (the claim) that Chong’s (OCD) could manifest in completely different treatment and outcomes for the victim,” Judge Low said.
Echoing the observations of IMH psychiatrist Dr Stephen Phang, Judge Low said Chong’s behavior “stems from and reflects a selective and discriminatory perception and treatment of the victim, and is not related to an underlying disorder”.
At her former employers’ trial, Ms Thelma also tearfully recounted how she was allowed to shower just once a week in a public toilet, made to sleep odd hours in a storeroom and put to work overnight.
She was unable to get help, as the couple had taken away her mobile phone and forbade her to speak to anyone outside the family.
Ms Thelma managed to escape one day and sought refuge at HOME (Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics), a welfare organisation for foreign workers in Singapore.
In a nod to considerable public interest in the case, Judge Low said his decision that Chong’s OCD had little to do with her treatment of Ms Thelma “may beg the question from the public: Then what’s the cause?”
“Perhaps some closure can be obtained from Dr Phang’s attempt to explain (Chong’s behavior),” the judge said, cautioning the psychiatrist’s theory is merely speculative but could provide an expert opinion and insight into Chong’s behavior.
Dr Phang had said: “If I may venture, (Chong’s) starving of the maid probably emanates from what would likely have been essentially very ordinary and non-pathological … normal emotions such as normal frustration, normal anger, and so on and so forth.”
Lim and Chong are expected to be sentenced on Feb 23. Each of them faces up to 12 months’ jail and a fine of up to S$10,000.
