Abuse, death of Myanmar domestic worker ‘shocking’: Singapore law minister
- K Shanmugam said prosecutors had sought murder charge for Gaiyathiri Murugayan who abused Piang Ngaih Don for nine months until she died
- Expressing ‘shock’ over Gaiyathiri’s behaviour, he said the charge was later brought down to culpable homicide because of the evidence available
“The first charge was intentional murder, for which the death penalty could have been the possible punishment. But, because of the evidence that was available, it was then brought down to culpable homicide,” he told reporters in a video conference on Thursday.
Shanmugam expressed “complete abhorrence” over what happened and said the behaviour of Piang’s employer was “shocking”.
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Piang was 24 when she died on July 26, 2016 at her employer’s Bishan flat. She had been working for Gaiyathiri Murugayan’s family for about a year and weighed just 24kg after being deprived of food.
The charges against Gaiyathiri were more serious than those for cases of maid abuse that surface more often before the authorities, Shanmugam said.
“I am sure I speak for many Singaporeans when I express our complete abhorrence for what happened.“In fact, none of these words describe adequately what happened to her … the bestiality of the conduct was shocking.”
In the High Court on Tuesday, Gaiyathiri, 40, pleaded guilty to violently abusing Piang over nine months until she died. She admitted to 28 charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, wrongful restraint, and causing hurt or grievous hurt to Piang. Prosecutors have sought the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Gaiyathiri’s husband, suspended police staff sergeant Kevin Chelvam, 42, and her mother Prema S Naraynasamy, 61, also face charges related to the abuse. Their cases are before the courts.
Shanmugam said that regardless of the outcome of Chelvam’s case, he will face internal police disciplinary proceedings once the case comes to a close.
Chelvam faces five charges, including voluntarily causing hurt to Piang, giving false information to a police investigator, and removing evidence in the form of a closed-circuit television system. He has been suspended from service since August 8, 2016, about two weeks after the police were first called to the family’s flat.
An autopsy in the wake of Piang’s death uncovered 31 recent scars and 47 external injuries all over her body. Her hyoid bone – a U-shaped bone in the neck that supports the tongue – was also fractured, most likely from Gaiyathiri holding her by the neck and shaking her like a rag doll, a forensic pathologist had found.
Foreign domestic workers must attend a mandatory half-yearly medical examination, and the compliance rate for this is high, Teo said.
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In Piang’s case, she underwent her medical examination in January 2016 and passed it. She visited the same doctor again in May that year for a runny nose, cough and swelling on her legs. On both occasions, however, nothing adverse was flagged to the authorities.
Asked whether this case showed a lapse in the reporting procedures, Teo said that was something the Ministry of Health would have to examine. The review, she stressed, is under way and the authorities will disclose more details later.
The government is also looking at how to better involve the community and partner organisations to detect signs of distress earlier.
In a statement on Wednesday giving more details of Piang’s employment, the Ministry of Manpower said there are safeguards to prevent the abuse of maids and that it would look into how it can support health care providers in identifying cases of possible abuse.
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It added that Gaiyathiri’s family had hired four other domestic helpers, but it did not receive complaints or “adverse feedback” from those workers. The ministry said it would intensify its efforts to reach out to and interview all foreign domestic workers about their well-being.
Elaborating on this, Teo said her ministry would explore a range of options and was taking on board suggestions on how it could do so.
She emphasised again that all first-time foreign domestic workers are provided with resources to report abuse to the authorities, including a hotline.
“It also requires the entire community to be alert. And I think in this case, it’s quite illustrative of the fact that the support could have been better.”
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