Our foreign domestic workers travel thousands of miles away from family and friends to work.
For some, they’ll meet with employers who lovingly accept them into the family.
Those are the lucky ones.
For others, they might find themselves scarred for life, at least mentally, if not physically.
How It All Started
In April 2018, the victim, a 25-year-old Indonesian maid, started working for Mun, a housewife.
The first incident happened about two months into the victim’s employment: Mun hit her shoulder with the floor nozzle of a vacuum cleaner.
Weeks later, she used her fist to strike the victim.
Abuse Progressively Got Worse
In November 2018, because the maid was hungry, she ate a can of sardines for lunch.
Furious, Mun punched her several times on her cheeks.
Anger unabated, Mun ordered the maid to punch herself in the cheeks 50 times because she felt the maid would “remember the pain better”.
The victim reluctantly agreed and punched herself while counting off.
At the end of the ordeal, here cheeks were bruised but she wasn’t taken to the doctor.
Meat Pounder On Her Teeth
In February 2019, Mun lost her temper again when she saw fingerprints on the kitchen windows.
She insisted that she wanted her maid’s teeth to “drop” as punishment and refused other forms of compensation.
Initially, she made the victim pull down her lower lips and punch herself in the teeth.
When it failed, she forced the victim to grab a meat pounder from the kitchen and hit herself in the lower teeth.
Even though the victim struck herself with the tool over fifty times, her teeth did not drop, though three lower teeth were loosened.
Angered, Mun grabbed the tool and knocked out one of her lower teeth.
Throughout the month, the abuse continued with Mun punching the victim’s mouth about ten times, causing blood and teeth to be loosened.
Caught & Sentenced
Eventually, the victim called the Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE), who called the police in.
By then, the abuse has been going on for over eight months.
It was noted that Mun was suffering from depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) when the incidents happened.
The prosecution called for at least 15 months’ jail.
While Mun was suffering from mental health conditions, it was pointed out that the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) report was “open-ended” (read: unclear) about any “causal links” between the disorders and the offences.
Mun’s defence, on the other hand, requested a 1-year jail term, saying Mun heard an inner voice telling her to hit the victim.
On Tuesday (16 Mar), the now 41-year-old Mun was sentenced to 15 months in jail.
Possible Penalties
For voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous means, she could’ve been jailed up to seven years and fined.
Mun cannot be caned as she’s a woman.
As the victim is a domestic helper, she could’ve received up to 1.5 times the maximum sentence.
Feature Image: Tinnakorn jorruang / Shutterstock.com
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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