Jail term reduced for maid who was 17 when she stabbed her employer’s mother-in-law to death

SINGAPORE: The sentence meted out to a domestic helper from Myanmar who killed the 70-year-old mother-in-law of her employer was reduced from life imprisonment to 17 years.

On June 25, 2018, Zin Mar Nwe, who was only 17 years old at the time, stabbed the victim 26 times while she was watching television. She then fled the home of her employer but was arrested at her agency. More details of the killing of the elderly woman may be found here.

Zin was found guilty of murder in 2023 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In May, however, her lawyers were able to successfully appeal against her conviction, with the Court of Appeal allowing a partial defence on the grounds of grave and sudden provocation. This resulted in a reduction of the charge to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Tay Yong Kwang and See Kee Oon, who made up the appeal panel, took note of the helper’s young age, her debt to her employment agent, and the fear Zin felt that she would be sent home to Myanmar.

“Given the particular circumstances of this accused person, in particular her youth, the challenges of her indebtedness to her employment agent and her fear of being repatriated in these circumstances, we think a reasonable person situated as the accused person was could reasonably have been similarly provoked,” the Chief Justice said on May 15.

Her employer’s mother-in-law had been physically abusive toward the helper and had also threatened to send her back to her employment agent.

While her official papers stated that she was 23 at the time of the killing of the elderly woman, investigations later showed that Zin had only been 17 then.

After the charge against her was reduced, Zin’s lawyers, working pro bono under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, asked for a jail sentence between 16 and 18 years. Meanwhile, Kumaresan Gohulabalan and Sean Teh, the Deputy Public Prosecutors on the case, sought a jail term of 18 to 20 years.

CNA quoted the DPPs as saying that Zin’s sentence should send a “robust signal” to “domestic helpers who resort to heinous violence against their employer or their families, rather than seek help from proper and legitimate channels”.

The reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder could still mean a life sentence for Zin, or a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment along with a fine. /TISG

Read also: Maid on trial for murder says the victim physically abused her