[ad_1]
SINGAPORE: One of the maids who accused her employer’s wife of abusing them at their multi-million dollar home in Sentosa Cove took the stand on Wednesday (December 9) and described her strange work hours as well as the pinching she allegedly received. .
Jenefer Vegafria Arangote, 39, told the court that he slept from 1 p.m. M. Or 2 p.m. M. And he woke up at 5 p.m. M. O 6 p. M. Every day for the three months he worked for the defendant, Tan Lee Hoon, at his home on Paradise Island.
Testifying through a Tagalog interpreter, the Filipina said that the arrangement was inherited from the maid before her, and said that she and the other maids ate twice a day before going to sleep, sometimes skipping the second. food if they were too busy.
When she joined the house in August 2018, Ms. Arangote’s duties included cleaning the house, cooking, gardening, and massaging Tan daily until the woman fell asleep. He would work all night, he added.
She shared these tasks with up to three other servants, including her fellow victim Lizardo Joan Lozares, 33. The two remaining maids, known to Mrs. Arangote only as Claire and Emily, left or were fired during the time that Mrs. Arangote worked for the house.
He said he received his instructions from Tan, who mostly stayed home, while Tan’s husband left the house with the children in the mornings.
Tan usually slept when Ms. Arangote went to bed around 1:00 p.m. M., And sometimes I was awake when Mrs. Arangote woke up at 5:00 p.m.
With her consent, Ms. Arangote had no days off in the three months that she worked for the home.
THE ALLEGED INCIDENTS
The incidents she recalled occurred sometime in October 2018, with the first taking place in Tan’s bedroom. She was massaging Tan around 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. before Tan went to bed.
“When I started massaging her, she wasn’t happy (with) the way I did it to her. Then she got mad at me, that’s why she pinched me,” Ms. Arangote said.
She added that both she and Ms. Lozares would take turns massaging Tan until he fell asleep, but Ms. Lozares would usually leave the room halfway, so Ms. Arangote was left alone to massage Tan.
The first time, Tan allegedly pinched Ms. Arangote twice on her shoulders. The pinches left “blue marks” on Ms. Arangote’s shoulders, and she took a photo of them.
During another massage, Tan allegedly pinched the upper right portion of Ms. Arangote’s chest twice. After a few days, Ms. Arangote noticed a bruise in the area and took another photo, which she showed to a friend.
During a third incident, Ms. Arangote was placing paper lanterns on a tree when she accidentally knocked over a statue, which angered Tan. Tan then pinched her on the back of her thigh, Ms. Arangote said.
There was a fourth incident when Tan allegedly pinched the maid on the inside of the forearm with his fingernails.
INCIDENTS INVOLVING THE OTHER MAID
Ms. Arangote also testified about how Tan allegedly abused his fellow servant, Ms. Lozares.
In one incident, after Tan asked Ms. Lozares to help her put on her socks, Ms. Arangote saw Tan using his fist to hit Ms. Lozares on the head.
Tan was wearing a ring at the time and used it to beat Ms. Lozares, said Ms. Arangote, who said she was shocked to see what happened.
After this, Ms. Lozares helped Tan put on his shoes, but he made a mistake and did not put them on correctly. Tan got angry and kicked Ms. Lozares in the chest, Ms. Arangote said.
In another incident, both maids were preparing to cook when Tan used a thin wooden stick to hit Ms. Lozares on the shoulder.
Ms. Arangote said she couldn’t remember why Tan did it. She told her then boyfriend and another maid about the incidents and sent them photos of her bruises or marks.
Sometime in October 2018, the fourth maid Emily left the house with her suitcases, and Ms. Arangote interpreted that to mean she was going to be sent home.
When Tan returned to the Paradise Island home from the airport, he confiscated all the phones belonging to the maids, Ms. Arangote said.
PHOTOS MISSING FROM YOUR PHONE
Tan asked Ms. Arangote for her phone password and went through her photo gallery. When he found the photos of the bruises, Tan asked Ms. Arangote why she kept those photos.
“I told her that I just kept it and that she did not return our cell phones,” Ms. Arangote said. He added that he eventually got his phone back from his agent, but the photos had been deleted.
On the morning of October 17, 2018, the maid that Ms. Arangote told about the bruises reported what happened to the Ministry of Manpower and the police arrived at the house.
They took the maids to the hospital and a few days later returned home to seize the closed-circuit television server, but they found nothing on it as there was no hard drive.
Tan is challenging eight counts of willfully causing harm to Ms. Arangote and Ms. Lozares.
According to the charge sheets, she is charged with pinching Ms. Arangote’s right biceps, stomach, chest, arm and thigh in September 2018. She is accused of hitting Ms. Lozares’s head with her hand and kicking her chest in October 2018, in addition to hitting her. his torso with a stick on another occasion that year.
The trial continues, with Tan being defended by attorneys Sunil Sudheesan and Diana Ngiam. Subsequently, they will have to interrogate Mrs. Arangote.
If convicted of willfully causing harm, Tan could be jailed for up to two years, fined up to S $ 5,000, or both, for each count. Since the offenses are against maids, she could receive up to one and a half times the original punishment if found guilty.
