Filipina domestic helper Thelma Oyasan Gawidan lost 20kg in the 15 months she worked for her Singaporean employers.
Chong Sui Foon and her husband Lim Choon Hoong were both found guilty of starving their 40-year-old maid, who was fed “only instant noodles twice a day,” forced “to sleep odd hours in a storeroom,” and only allowed to take a shower “once or twice a week.”
Gawidan suffered for more than a year before managing to escape the Orchard Road household in April 2014. She found help from non-profit organisation HOME, where she revealed the strict diet regimen she underwent, including getting minuscule portions of tomato, cucumber and meat the size of her small finger — if she was lucky.
Channel NewsAsia reported that a three-day hearing is being held ahead of the couple’s sentencing to debate the bearing of Chong’s mental illnesses on her behaviour.
Psychiatric analyses revealed that Chong’s failure to provide Gawidan with enough food originated from her obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as an eating disorder. Obsessed with cleanliness and control, she would dictate how much her family and Gawidan ate — even though she knew her actions were hurting them.
Prosecutors, however, disagreed. They questioned why Chong had “invested the time and effort” to feed her family, but only fed Gawidan bread and instant noodles.
Every time the Filipino asked her employer for more food, Chong would often refuse.
Chong “hasn’t shown an impulse to deprive her family members of food”, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Soo Tet. “In fact, it was quite the opposite. She force-fed her family.”
The hearing continues tomorrow.
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