One year jail for Singapore cop who attacked maid

NST Online 2009/02/17

BERNAMA

SINGAPORE, Tues: 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 per cent of maids are happy working in the city-state. - AFP