Elderly couple and daughter jailed for burning maid with hot coffee and iron

SINGAPORE: A family of three were sentenced to jail today (7 Mar), after the court heard that the trio meted horrific abuse upon their young foreign domestic helper, mere weeks after she began working for them.

The helper, 27-year-old Heni Rahayu who is from Indonesia, first started working in the Ang Mo Kio home of 70-year-old Tan Huat his 68-year-old wife Tan Ai Tee, and their 46-year-old daughter Tan Pei Ling, in January 2020.

The Tan family was the very first family Ms Heni worked for in Singapore. She, however, requested to return to her agency after about one week, as she felt the women in the small Tan family were dissatisfied with her work performance.

Mr Tan did not allow Ms Heni to do so and the abuse against the young woman began shortly thereafter. Ms Heni was not permitted to leave her employers’ flat, had no days off and was unable to contact her agency as she lacked access to a mobile phone.

The Tan matriarch assaulted Ms Heni with a plastic pail on one occasion and drew blood in another instance after assaulting the helper with a knife. Her husband once slapped the young woman twice for not responding to him in the manner he preferred.

Their daughter, an events manager, went on to use a plastic chair and a metal pole to beat the helper in another instance.

Things took an even darker turn on 23 July. Forced to complete a mountain of chores before she could sleep, a tired and starving Ms Heni decided to make a cup of coffee for herself at 2.30 am. Dissatisfied, Tan Pei Ling poured the scalding coffee on the helper. She also burned Ms Heni with a clothing heated iron, a few hours later.

The abuse was uncovered when a neighbour notified the police of the commotion. Tan Pei Ling was sentenced to 20 months in prison, her mother was given nine months in prison while her father was sentenced to three weeks in jail.