SINGAPORE - An aircraft technician repeatedly abused his Indonesian domestic helper and even assaulted her following a Hari Raya gathering in June 2018.

On another occasion two months later, Yusni Yunos, who works for SIA Engineering Company, used his right hand to pull 27-year-old Ms Nenti Rusnianti's left ear twice after finding out that she had failed to inform him that she was going to sleep that evening.

Afraid for their safety, Ms Nenti and Yusni's other Indonesian helper, Ms Rani Nurhayati, 29, climbed out of a window of their employer's ground floor flat at around 2am on Aug 27, 2018, and took a taxi to Ms Rani's maid agency to seek help.

The police were alerted to Yusni's acts of abuse at around 1pm that day.

The 46-year-old Singaporean father of three was sentenced on Thursday (Jan 23) to four months' jail after pleading guilty to three counts of assault. Six other similar charges were considered during sentencing.

He was also ordered to give $1,500 to Ms Nenti as compensation.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Derek Ee said that Yusni employed her on Jan 13, 2017, but later felt that she was incompetent and was "causing him problems".

He often scolded her and called her "stupid" while she was working for him.

In April 2017, Ms Nenti was sitting on the floor in Yusni's living room when he walked past and purposely kicked her right knee once.

The DPP told District Judge Sarah Tan: "The victim shouted because of the pain. The accused said 'sorry'... even though the kick was intentional. As a result of the kick, the victim suffered a blue-black (bruise) on her right knee. However, she did not seek any medical attention."

The court heard that a decision was later made to send Ms Nenti back to Indonesia and Yusni employed Ms Rani as her replacement on June 1, 2018.

Yusni assaulted Ms Nenti again following a Hari Raya gathering at his home later that month as he was unhappy that she had cleared a plate while a guest was still eating.

After the guests left, he reprimanded the maid and used his hand to hit the top of her head once, causing her to scream in pain.

The two maids were in their room at around midnight on Aug 26, 2018, when Yusni scolded them for not informing him that they were going to bed.

He ordered Ms Rani to step out before assaulting Ms Nenti. After that, he asked the older woman to return to the room and continued berating the pair.

The two maids finally fled on Aug 27 that year and the police were alerted.

Yusni was offered bail of $10,000 on Thursday and was ordered to surrender himself at the State Courts on Feb 20 to begin serving his jail term.

For each count of maid abuse, he could have been jailed for up to three years and fined up to $7,500.