Woman jailed for punching, kicking maid who wanted to leave

Enraged when her domestic helper said she wanted to quit, the woman rained blows on the victim's head and body while the latter sobbed on the floor.

After the assault, knowing that the Myanmar national would make a police report, Chinese national Bai Yihong, 34, told her to think about her children and said that if things blew up, she would not be allowed to work in Singapore.

The victim's name was redacted in court documents.

Bai, who was unemployed at the time and later diagnosed with a major depressive episode and schizophrenia, was jailed for eight months and six weeks yesterday for the assault and for subsequently trying to get her in-laws to delete CCTV footage of the incident.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Claire Poh told the court that this was not Bai's first assault on the 31-year-old, who worked for the family in their Hougang flat for about a year from November 2019.

The abuse culminated on the morning of Nov 6, 2020, after the maid stayed the night at Bai's in-laws' flat in the same block as she had felt sick, and Bai was afraid she would infect her infant son.

Bai's husband, Mr Chua Bee Seng, her mother, Hai Yulan, then 57, Mr Chua's parents, Bai's infant son and the helper were in the in-laws' living room when Bai went up to the flat at about 9.20am to get the helper, who did not want to leave the flat.

She told Bai she wanted to quit.

Bai shouted at and threatened her, and tried to drag the maid out of the flat.

While Hai told Bai to leave initially, she later joined Bai in pulling the victim's arm to drag her out of the flat. The maid resisted and Bai assaulted her again, including kicking and punching her head repeatedly.

Bai threatened to beat the helper to death and continued her assault. Bai thought of a cover-up story to explain to the agent. She also told Mr Chua to call his sisters to delete the CCTV footage of the incident.

The agent took the victim to a hospital, where she was found to have a muscle strain on her back, facial contusion, lip laceration, and bruises on her left arm. A police report was then made.

Hai was fined $3,000 in December last year for her involvement.

The DPP said the victim now has a scar over her lower lip. She was out of work for a month and had to pay two months' salary as agent's fees to get another employer. Bai paid $5,580 in restitution.

Her lawyers, Mr Kevin Liew and Ms Gloria James, told the court that an Institute of Mental Health report found that she was having a major depressive episode which had a contributory link to her offences. For voluntarily causing hurt to her domestic helper, Bai could have been jailed six years, fined $10,000, or both.