Singaporean Employer Jailed for Pouring Soy Sauce on Helper’s Head and Multiple Abuses over Three Months

By
Loh Huey Xin
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Pouring soy sauce on someone’s head and throwing chili at one’s face sound like scenes straight out of a soap opera.

However, these “scenes” did not need any scripting as they happened in real life to a 33-year-old domestic helper.

A 42-year-old woman was sentenced to four weeks in jail this morning after abusing her domestic helper eight times within three months.

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Here’s what happened.

Multiple Incidents of Physical Abuse

Norwahidah Johari admitted to one count of intentionally causing hurt and two counts of criminal violence.

Five additional charges of criminal violence were taken into consideration during sentencing.

According to case details, the Indonesian victim, Putri Rizki Amelia, 33, began working in the defendant’s home in March 2023.

Court documents showed that the abuse began in August.

The defendant threw a garbage bin at the victim’s head, causing trash items like paper scraps to fall on the maid’s face.

The defendant committed many other cruel acts, including throwing shoes at her, splashing water on her face twice, and once throwing flour at her face.

Soy Sauce Incident and Chili Attack

On 28 September 2023, around midnight, the defendant confronted the victim in the kitchen about not putting a soy sauce bottle in the refrigerator.

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She claimed she had reminded the victim multiple times, but after one and a half months, the soy sauce still wasn’t in the fridge.

When the victim tried to explain, the defendant became angry, opened the bottle cap, and poured half the soy sauce onto the victim’s head.

The victim, angered by this, told the defendant to pour the remaining soy sauce on her as well, which the defendant did without hesitation.

Court documents also revealed that one evening in September at 9:00 PM, the defendant asked the victim to remove seeds from chilis.

After the victim processed the chilies and placed them in a bowl, the defendant claimed there were still seeds present and asked her to redo the task.

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After the victim processed the chilies a second time, the defendant insisted seeds remained and became angry.

She picked up the bowl and threw it at the victim’s face. The chili made contact with the victim’s eyes, causing significant discomfort that whole evening.

In early October, the defendant returned home from work in the evening and smelled urine on the sofa.

Since she had previously instructed the victim to place rubber mats on the sofa to prevent her daughter’s diaper from leaking and soiling the furniture, she became furious upon seeing the soiled sofa.

The victim explained it was a urine stain from the morning that she had already cleaned, but the defendant felt the sofa still smelled of urine and grew increasingly angry.

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Seeing this, the victim hurriedly cleaned the sofa again with cleaning solution.

The defendant stated that the sofa was very expensive and that the victim couldn’t afford to replace it.

She then grabbed and twisted the victim’s ear for several seconds, causing sharp pain in the victim’s left ear.

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Loh Huey Xin