Singapore jails woman who asked domestic helper to punch herself and hit her teeth with meat pounder
- Mun Sau Yeng, who was suffering from depression and OCD, sentenced to 15 months in prison for abusing the Indonesian woman
- Unhappy with the helper’s cleaning skills, the 41-year-old told her to strike herself with a meat pounder until one of her teeth dropped
A Singaporean woman who abused her domestic helper over eight months, making her punch herself and use a meat pounder to hit her mouth, was jailed for 15 months on Tuesday.
Mun Sau Yeng, 41, was suffering from depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) at the time, the court heard.
She pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous means to a maid and two charges of voluntarily causing hurt. Another four charges were considered.
The victim began working for Mun, a housewife, in April 2018. Mun’s lawyer said she was prone to “excessive cleaning” and felt the victim could not match her own cleaning standards.
About two months into the 25-year-old Indonesian maid’s employment, Mun struck her shoulder with the floor nozzle of a vacuum cleaner, and struck her head with her fist weeks later.
In November 2018, when the woman ate a can of sardines for lunch as she was hungry, Mun grew angry and punched her several times on both cheeks. She then instructed the maid to punch her own cheeks for about 50 times, because she felt the domestic helper would remember the pain better if she punched herself.