An Indonesian maid was sentenced to jail for eight years by
Singapore's High Court on Monday for repeatedly stabbing her
employer's seven-year-old daughter.
According to The Straits Times, Kumaeroh, who had then
been working for the family of four for eight months, was preparing
the girl for school on 23 September 2009, when the maid suddenly
attacked the child with a knife.
The girl was the only one home with the maid, as her parents
were out at work and her elder sister was still in school.
As the maid stabbed the girl repeatedly with the knife, the
latter struggled and fell. But Kumaeroh continued stabbing her in
the front and back while pinning the girl down.
She then took a chopper from the kitchen and started slashing
the girl's wrist as she pressed the girl's left palm against the
floor.
When the maid did not fetch the girl's elder sister from school,
the latter called home but the maid hung up on her. She then called
her father.
Although Kumaeroh told the father that the girl was sick when he
called home, he heard her crying out for him and went home
immediately.
The girl was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance after her
father found her bleeding on the floor.
Kumaeroh pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted culpable
homicide and was sent to jail for eight years.
The Indonesian's lawyer, Mohamed Muzammil, requested for
leniency, explaining that his client deeply regrets her
actions.
He further reasoned that she was sexually assaulted by her
stepfather in Malaysia where she was working after leaving her
village in 2006.
She then spent five months in jail for being an illegal
immigrant in Malaysia.
In passing the sentence, Justice Woo Bih Li said he considered
Kumaeroh's young age, her background, her state of mind and that
she was away from her family working overseas.
According to the court, three months before the incident,
Kumaeroh thought she was being spied on with video cameras planted
by her employers in the flat.
But there was no evidence to prove that she was being
spied on. In addition, she was neither abused nor faced tougher
working conditions than normal.
The family celebrated the maid's birthday to make her feel at
home, and Kumaeroh even wrote in her diary that she was happy
working for the family.
According to the Straits Times, although the girl's
mother believed that the sentence was fair, the father said that
they "will never forgive her."
Although physically recovered, the girl has no appetite and is
uncomfortable around strangers, said her mother.
The family no longer has a maid.