Convicted maid abuser to take the stand in appeal
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Anita Damu is appealing against her jail term of two years and seven months.
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A convicted maid abuser seeking to avoid jail time will be taking the stand to support her assertion that she heard voices which caused her to commit the offences.
Anita Damu, 51, is appealing against her jail term of two years and seven months for, among other things, pouring scalding hot water over her domestic worker and using a hot iron to hurt her.
The issue of contention between the prosecution and the defence is whether the convicted woman experienced auditory hallucinations at the time of the offences.
Yesterday, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon set aside the finding of a district judge who had earlier accepted reports by two psychiatrists that Anita had auditory hallucinations.
The relevance and reliability of the psychiatric evidence were critically undermined by Anita's failure to give direct evidence by testifying in court, he said.
"In the absence of any direct evidence from the appellant, the district judge had no factual basis at all on which to make a finding as to the veracity of the appellant's assertions that she had in fact heard voices and acted upon them," said the Chief Justice.
He said Anita should testify as it was incumbent on her to present the best evidence available to support her assertion. "This is something that is uniquely within her personal knowledge, and thus the best evidence is that of the appellant herself," said the Chief Justice.
He said the fair course to take would be to give Anita the choice to take the stand, although prosecutors argued the psychiatric evidence should be disregarded entirely for the appeal. In response, her lawyer Sarindar Singh told the court that she will do so. The case was adjourned for parties to work out how this was to be carried out.
In September last year, Anita pleaded guilty to charges related to various acts of abuse against her maid. She splashed hot water on the victim because she ate a longan without permission. She also burned the maid's hands with an iron, claiming she was slow in her work.
