When the judge read the sentence, Prema S. Naraynasamy, 64, did not react and looked down at the ground, according to The Straits Times.
Singapore: An Indian-origin woman sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday for assisting her daughter in assaulting a domestic helper until she died of a brain injury last year.
When the judge read the sentence, Prema S. Naraynasamy, 64, did not react and looked down at the ground, according to The Straits Times.
“The deceased is no longer with us to speak of her suffering, but CCTV footage revealed a shocking picture of the abuse and how emancipated and weak she was before her death,” said Principal District Judge Toh Han Li.
Piang Ngaih Don, a 24-year-old Myanmar woman, died of brain injury with severe blunt trauma to her neck on July 26, 2016, after 14 months of torture.
Pouring water on the victim, kicking, punching, and slapping her, grabbing her by the neck, pulling her up by her hair, and violently “spinning” her head were all examples of Naraynasamy’s abuse.
The victim was assaulted on multiple occasions by her or her daughter, Gaiyathiri Murugayan, according to the court.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Senthilkumaran Sabapathy, this was one of Singapore’s worst abuse cases, involving severe physical and psychological harm.
“Like a rag doll, the deceased was dragged and thrown around the house… Many of us would never treat inanimate objects in this way. “Her life was nothing short of a living nightmare, thanks in large part to Prema’s actions,” Sabapathy was quoted in The Straits Times as saying.
Naraynasamy pleaded guilty to 47 counts of voluntarily causing harm to the victim and one count of attempting to voluntarily cause harm in November of last year.
Murugayan, her 41-year-old daughter, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on June 22, 2021, the longest sentence ever imposed in a domestic worker abuse case in Singapore.
According to the court, Naraynasamy hit the victim with a spatula, towel, and detergent bottle while watching the victim use the toilet.
Naraynasamy was seen beating the domestic help with a bamboo pole used to hang clothes in one of the clips taken from cameras installed in their three-bedroom flat in Bishan and played in court earlier.
In another, she had grabbed Piang’s hair and dragged her to the ground before lifting her up again by her hair.
Piang weighed 39 kg when she began working for the family on May 28, 2015, but died on July 26, 2016, weighing only 24 kg.
She was tied to the window grille at night for the last 12 days of her life while sleeping on the floor in the same room as Prema, who slept on the bed.
The autopsy revealed that the maid died as a result of a brain injury caused by severe blunt trauma to the neck.
