A court hearing involving a domestic helper who was jailed for theft and a rash act against an elderly woman.
Indonesian domestic helper jailed 16 weeks after throwing lotion bottle at employer's elderly mother and stealing jewellery
SINGAPORE: On Thursday (Oct 1), a 44-year-old domestic helper who threw a bottle of lotion at the mother of her employer, as well as stole two pieces of gold jewellery, has been given a jail sentence of 16 weeks.
Eka Yulianti Suryanto, an Indonesian national, pleaded guilty to one count of theft, as well as one count of committing a rash act.
She had been working for her employer for over a decade at the time of the offences. She and another helper slept in the same bedroom as the mother of her employer, a 70-year-old woman who suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was bedridden.
The elderly woman’s condition, however, caused her to make noise involuntarily at night, which interrupted Eka’s sleep. The helper then took to tossing objects toward the woman’s bed, after which, allegedly, the woman would quiet down.
However, early in the morning of January 22, 2026, the woman again made noise that was said to have woken Eka from her sleep. She threw a bottle of lotion at her employer’s mother, striking her on the mouth and causing her lips to bleed.
Eka, however, was unaware of this and went back to sleep without checking on the elderly woman.
When the other helper changed the woman’s diaper later that morning, she noticed the injury on the woman’s mouth and took a picture of it.
Though Eka admitted to having thrown the lotion bottle at the elderly woman, neither of the helpers told the employer what happened, and the woman did not receive medical attention. According to reporting from Mothership, the other helper initially did not say anything as she was afraid of Eka. But on Jan 25, when Eka had a day off, she finally told their employer about the incident.
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During the course of the investigation that followed, Eka’s theft of supermarket vouchers and gold jewellery was discovered, although Eka initially lied about the missing items. The report said that the helper pawned the jewellery for S$2,880, and she sent the money back home. She has not paid her employer back for the thefts. /TISG