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SINGAPORE – On Wednesday (September 23) the Court of Appeals increased her sentence to 14 months for a woman whose initial jail sentence of 20 months for abuse of maids was reduced to eight months.
Suzanna Bong Sim Swan, 48, was convicted of one count of causing harm to Ms. Than Than Soe on May 17, 2015, by repeatedly hitting the maid’s left cheek with a glass bottle containing medicinal oil. .
The court heard that Bong regularly assaulted the Myanmar domestic worker, who was 27 years old when she started working in 2013, often hitting the victim in the eye or face.
About 10 months after arriving in Singapore, the victim’s eyesight began to deteriorate.
The victim called the police after Bong assaulted her with the glass bottle and was later found to be legally blind in her left eye.
In 2018, Bong was sentenced to 20 months in jail by a district court and ordered to pay compensation of $ 38,540.40 to the victim.
Bong appealed to the Superior Court, which reduced his sentence to eight months and the award to $ 1,000.
Judge Chua Lee Ming said at the time that there was no evidence that Bong’s actions on May 17, 2015 caused the victim’s injuries, which could have been caused by previous instances of abuse for which Bong was not charged.
The prosecution then took the case to the Court of Appeal to determine the issues of law that arose in the case.
In August, the Court of Appeals ruled that if there has been a sustained pattern of abuse, it would be wrong for a sentencing judge to ignore that fact and consider the charge in isolation because it would give a false assessment of the victim’s suffering. and the guilt of the offender.
On Wednesday, the High Court, consisting of Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Appellate Justices Andrew Phang and Tay Yong Kwang, increased Bong’s prison term to 14 months.
He was granted a one-week stay and ordered to begin serving his sentence on September 30.
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