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The wife of a Singapore police officer confessed to starving, torturing and eventually killing the housekeeper in Myanmar.
He weighed only 24 kg when he died in 2016. Prosecutors called Gaiyathiri Murugayan’s actions “completely inhumane.” BBC News reports.
This is just one of the reported domestic worker abuse cases in recent years in the wealthy city-state. NGOs have expressed concern about the way foreign domestic workers, most of them from much poorer neighboring countries, are treated.
This week, Gaiyathiri Murugayan, 40, pleaded guilty in Singapore court to 28 counts, including the murder of Piang Ngaih Don. If convicted, she could be jailed for life.
The court found that Piang started working for Murugayan in 2015, when he had his first job abroad. Murugayan began abusing her in October 2015, after she deemed Piang to be “slow, miserable, and overeat,” according to local media.
The images from the cameras installed in the house recorded the abuse suffered by the woman in the last month of her life, many times being beaten several times a day. Murugayan allegedly burned it with a hot iron.
According to investigators, Piang received only water-soaked slices of bread, leftovers from the refrigerator, or rice. He lost 15 kg, approximately 38% of his total weight, in 14 months.
The 24-year-old housekeeper died in July 2016, after being beaten for hours by Murugayan and her mother.
Prosecutors have requested life in prison for Murugayan, while defense attorneys are seeking a reduced sentence, saying he was suffering from depression at the time and was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Her husband, Police Officer Kelvin Chelvam and her mother also face multiple charges. The man has been fired since 2016.
Singapore’s Labor Minister Josephine Teo said the housekeeper’s situation was not noticed, although authorities went to the house several times.
Singapore is home to some 250,000 foreign domestic workers, usually from countries like Indonesia, Myanmar or the Philippines.
Cases of abuse are not uncommon. In 2017, a couple was jailed for starving their housekeeper in the Philippines. In 2019, another couple was jailed for abusing a Myanmar worker.
Publisher: DC
