Singapore—A domestic helper on trial for stabbing to death the mother-in-law of her employer claims that the elderly woman had abused her.
Zin Mar Nwe, a Myanmar national, arrived in Singapore on Jan 5, 2018, and had worked for the family for less than two months in 2018 when the killing happened.
According to her passport, she was 23 at the time, the minimum age for applying to work here as a domestic helper, but she had lied about her age. Tests performed later on found that she had actually been only 17 at the time. She said her agent had told her to lie about her age.Â
Zin started working for her employer, the victim’s son-in-law, on May 10, 2018.
A court order bars the victim and other members of the family – his wife and two teenage daughters – from being identified The gag order also covers the location of their home.
The employer’s mother-in-law arrived from India on May 26 for a visit that was to have lasted several weeks. She and Zin were the only ones home on June 25 when the stabbing happened.
This is what the court was told: Sometime between 11:27 am and 12:17 pm on that day, as the older woman was lying on the sofa in the living room watched TV, Zin stabbed her repeatedly with a kitchen knife until she stopped moving.
Zin then broke a lock in one of the bedrooms and took her things, and some of her money. She washed the knife and left it in the kitchen, changed clothes, took her belongings, and left.
The woman was found dead later that afternoon, and her son-in-law called the police.
CNA reports that the woman died due to an acute haemorrhage from multiple stab wounds, including one that pierced her heart.
Footage from CCTV cameras are said to show that Zin went to her agency and asked for her passport. It was not given to her. She then wandered around before taking a taxi back to the agency, where the staff alerted the police and she was arrested.
The cab driver found more than $100 in cash in a plastic bag on a rear passenger seat, reported The Straits Times. This was then traced to the helper’s agency.
Zin’s blood was found on four of the notes. and doctors found lacerations on her hand when she was examined.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Kumaresan Gohulabalan and Sean Teh said that Zin had not complained about her employer and had been allowed to call her relatives in Myanmar.
The court heard that Zin stabbed the older woman who had got upset with her and allegedly told her, loudly: “Tomorrow, you go agent.”
In April this year, another domestic helper, Daryati, from Indonesia was sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing her employer to death in 2016. Daryati, who goes by one name, was sentenced after she first pleaded guilty, retracted that pleam then was tried again and convicted of murder.
CNA reports that Zin’s lawyers are likely to plead that she had diminished responsibility based on a psychiatric report saying she suffered from mixed anxiety and depressive reaction, or adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood.
The lead investigating officer on the case, who testified at the hearing on Nov 9, said Zin claimed that the elderly woman, had scalded her, hit her on her head and back, and kicked her.
Her diary from that time also showed she was sad and was missing her family very much.
The investigating officer told defence lawyer Christopher Bridges that the helper may have been triggered by the elderly lady saying she would be sent back to the agent, as Zin owed more than $3,000.
The investigating officer, Superintendent Alvin Phua, who was the first witness to testify, said that money did not seem to be the motive for the killing as the victim’s jewellery and valuables had not been taken.
If Zin pleads guilty to murder, she could face the death penalty or be jailed for life. The trial continues./TISG
https://theindependent.sg/spore-maid-steals-s12k-from-employer-buys-iphone-12-luxuries-throws-notes-out-the-window/