The employer, Nuur Audadi Yusoff, 31, pleaded guilty on September 28 to six counts of assault on her maid, Sulis Setyowati, 24; another nine charges for similar offences will be considered during sentencing.
Nuur repeatedly abused her maid, Sulis, from January 2018 to April 2018, by slapping her face and pulling her hair, which resulted in Sulis climbing out of the balcony on the 15th storey apartment in Yishun, making her way down to the ground floor.
Nuur was a Singtel employee supporting a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) contact centre.
Sulis started working for Nuur on December 1, 2017 and she was paid $580 per month.
The following month, Sulis forgot to apply ointment of Nuur’s daughter’s stomach and Nuur was awakened by her daughter’s cries; enraged, she spat the the maiid and slapped her face twice.
The abuse continued in February 2018 where she even dragged the maid by the hair.
Sulis asked for a transfer and Nuur promised not to hit her again, Sulis continued working there as she needed money to send back home.
On April 11 2018, Nuur even took Sulis to MOM to file a report on wages owed to the maid by her former employers (for whom she was working for prior to working for Nuur), Sulis was grateful to Nuur for doing so.
However, Nuur soon returned to her old ways 10 days later.
She found photos of her children on Sulis’ Facebook and got upset, she then slapped her face witht he phone and with her hand before throwing the phone to the ground, cracking it.
The victim’s face was bleeding.
Nuur then confiscated Sulis’ phone and assaulted her almost everyday for about a week.
On April 29, Sulis managed to retrieve her mobile phone and hid it – she wanted to call her agency to ask for a transfer.
Nuur then realised the missing phone and confronted her maid, who denied taking it.
Nuur then used to comb to poke Sulis’ forehead; she also slapped and pulled her hair.
Sulis was made to sleep in the living room; Nuur locked the door of the maid room and the unit’s front door to prevent her from escaping.
Sulis was sat on the floor the following day when Nuur pulled her hair and kicked her head a few times before she left for work.
When she returned home from work, she called her maid a prostitute and asked if she wanted to seduce her husband; but the maid misheard her and said: “Yes ma’am.”
Nuur got angry and used a broom to hit the maid’s head and back repeatedly.
Sulis then decided to run away at around 2am; because the front door was locked, she escaped through the balcony.
She then climbed down 15 storeys, going down balcony by balcony before reaching the ground floor.
Her agent adviced her to make a police report that afternoon.
Sulis then went to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital where bruises and wounds were found on her.
Nuur will be sentenced on November 18 and her bail was set at $10,000.