SINGAPORE, Feb 17, 2009 (AFP) - A vengeful Singaporean police
officer repeatedly assaulted his Indonesian maid for "innocuous
mistakes," a judge said in explaining why he sentenced the officer
to a year's jail.
High Court Justice Kan Ting Chiu issued his judgement earlier
this month, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Tuesday.
Lawrence Lim Hwang Ngin, who held the rank of police staff
sergeant, was found guilty and sentenced to a total of 12 months'
jail for assaulting Tri Utami, 23, five times between January and
May 2006, Kan wrote.
Lim, a decorated police officer, was acquitted of eight other
charges including sexual abuse.
During two of the painful assaults, he kicked her abdomen
several times, while on other occasions hit her in the head, the
judge wrote.
"The circumstances leading to each assault were the minor
innocuous mistakes of a domestic maid, made without any defiance,
disrespect or dishonesty," the judge wrote.
He said Lim had disliked Utami since he chanced upon her
shouting at and shaking his infant daughter violently. He wanted to
fire the maid but his wife dissuaded him, said the judge.
"The assaults were not spontaneous lapses of self-control. They
were the vengeful reaction to the maid's continued presence in his
house," the judge wrote, accusing Lim of abusing his position as a
policeman.
He issued his written argument as both the prosecution and Lim,
a former detective out on bail, appealed the sentence, The Straits
Times reported Tuesday.
Advocacy groups say about 170,000 migrant women, many from
Indonesia and the Philippines, work as domestic helpers in
Singapore, where cases of employers abusing their maids appear
often in local media.
The Ministry of Manpower has said that 90 percent of maids are
happy working in the city-state.