Ex-boss submerged my head in water-filled basin, maid tells court

KUALA LUMPUR: A Cambodian maid told a Sessions Court here that her hairdresser employer and his wife abused her in various manners, including submerging her head in a basin of water between 2011 and last year.

Cheah Palla, 28, said the wife Eng Lay Sang had also put a chopper between her lips and tapped it with a kitchen knife, cutting the sides of her mouth.

“Blood flowed from my mouth as the result of the act,” she said when replying to a question by DPP Amira Sariaty Zainal during an examination-in-chief before Judge Rozana Ali Yusoff.

Cheah was testifying in the trial of Tan Mong Huwai and Eng, both 36, who were charged with abusing her using an empty bottle, a pair of shoes, a weighing scale, an iron, an aluminium rod, a kitchen knife, a plastic chair and a pail.

She said that in one incident, Eng had also thrown one of her highheeled shoes at her, inflicting an injury just above her left eye.

Other times, she said, Eng had pressed a hot iron on her right arm, hit her hand with a plastic chair and hit her left leg with an iron rod.

To another question, Cheah said Tan once grabbed her head and pushed it into a basin of water.

The offence was alleged to have taken place at a condominium in Plaza Prima Setapak in Jalan Genting Klang here between Aug 16, 2011 and May 24, 2012.

Cross-examined by counsel K. Vikneswaran, Cheah said she arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 24, 2010, and underwent training at a maid agency for a month before starting work at the couple’s condominium.

Agensi Pekerjaan Sri Mawar worker Lay Kunthea, 25, said she only knew Cheah when her employer sent her back to the agency on May 24 last year.

Lay said she and a friend sent Cheah to the Sungai Buloh Hospital for a check-up the following day after the maid informed her of what had happened. Cheah was warded a day at the hospital.

Questioned by Amira, Lay said the doctor who treated Cheah told her that “Cheah’s mouth had been swollen for a long time and that was why she could not open her mouth”.

The hearing continues for two days beginning Feb 21.

Counsel Kevin Wong is holding a watching brief for the Cambodian Embassy and Adam Yap for Cheah.