Two siblings jailed six weeks and 26 months respectively
Ansley Ng

They wanted to force a confession, and so they tortured their 29-year-old maid. She was pinned down, her mouth forced open - and one of her tormentors, a 17-year-old, used a pair of pliers to yank out a front tooth.

Then, the maid was warned, they would extract another tooth if she continued denying having stolen their money. They made good that threat.

Over a period of two months last year, Ms Badingah suffered other horrific indignities from the family which included two teenagers. She had boiling wax poured over her head. She was caned, hit with an iron rod and deprived of sleep. She even allegedly had boiling water poured on her vagina.

Finally, so desperate was she to escape that she climbed out of the kitchen window and jumped from the second-storey flat, Deputy Public Prosecutor Natalie Morris told the court yesterday. Police officers who attended to her later found her hair shorn off, exposing large areas of tender and infected scalp.

A medical examination also found that most of her back was covered with scald wounds, and there was a blood clot in her left ear caused by a "blunt trauma".

Yesterday, three of Ms Badingah's tormentors were convicted. Ms Nur Rizan Mohd Sazali, now 18, was jailed for two years and two months, for extracting two of the maid's teeth and pouring hot wax on her head.

Her brother, Mr Muhammad Iz'aan Mohd Sazali, 20, was jailed six weeks for caning the maid. Their mother's lover, Ms Elsa Elyana Said, pleaded guilty to punching the maid and holding her down while her teeth were being extracted. She will be sentenced on Oct 17.

The siblings' mother, Ms Maselly Abdul Aziz, had her plea of guilt rejected by District Judge Jill Tan, who ordered her to return to court this morning for a pre-trial conference.

Ms Badingah had moved into the family's Jalan Minyak flat in June last year to work for Elsa, 24. She was repeatedly accused of stealing from them, and the convicted trio took turns abusing and taunting her when she denied the allegations.

Yesterday, in pressing for a deterrent sentence, DPP Morris urged the court to consider the nature and extent of the injuries. The accused had covered up their actions by telling the maid to hide her wounds with a sweater or headscarf when she went out.

In mitigation, lawyer S S Dhillon saidMs Elsa, who had hired Ms Badingah to take care of her aunt, had received complaints that the maid had been disinterested in chores and that cash had gone missing.

The trio also suspected Ms Badingah of abusing Ms Maselly's six-year-old daughter. "They are deeply apologetic and ashamed of their behaviour, but they feel that at that point in time, they were pushed to a point where they could not think logically,"Mr Dhillon added.

When photos of the maid's injuries were passed around the dock, the accused persons had tears in their eyes - except Ms Nur Rizan, who refused to look at the pictures.

A single parent, the 18-year-old has a one-year-old son to take care of, said Mr Dhillon. Ms Elsa, too, has a one-year-old daughter and suffers from kidney failure, he added, asking for the minimum jail sentence.

But turning to Ms Nur Rizan, who sobbed as she was sentenced, DJ Tan said there was no excuse for her "shocking and horrific acts" even though she had been instigated. "You were 17 at that time but I don't understand why you didn't think it was inhumane."

Ms Maselly, 37, will return to court this morning for a pre-trial conference.

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17 Sept 2008
Straits Times

Sister, brother committed several abusive acts on maid, including pulling out her two front teeth

An Indonesian maid, accused of theft, kept protesting her innocence. But Ms Badingah, 29, was not believed - and went on to lose two of her front teeth, one after another, at the hands of a teenager wielding a pair of pliers.

The 'dentist', Nur Rizan Mohd Sazali, an 18-year-old mother of one, was yesterday jailed for a total of 26 months - 12 months for forcibly extracting the two teeth and another 14 months for pouring boiling wax on the maid.

Nur Rizan was assisted by Ms Badingah's employer, Elsa Elyana Said, 25, who held the maid's head still and forced her mouth open.

Elsa, who pleaded guilty to punching the maid and abetting in the tooth extraction, will be sentenced on Oct 16.

She lived with Nur Rizan, as well as the teenager's mother and brother, in a flat in Jalan Minyak, off Chin Swee Road.

The abuse that Ms Badingah suffered at the hands of the four people under that roof took place between June 2 and July 26 last year.

Nur Rizan's brother, Muhammad Iz'aan, 20, was jailed for six weeks after having pleaded guilty to caning Ms Badingah.

The maid, in one of the punishments meted out for an unnamed infraction, had been ordered to stand facing the door through the whole night with one leg off the ground and holding her ears. Muhammad Iz'aan caned her when she put down that leg.

The siblings' mother, Maselly Abdul Aziz, 38, at first said the statement of facts read out in court contained falsehoods, but later changed her mind and pleaded guilty as charged.

Her guilty plea was rejected.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Natalie Morris said the abuses started three months after Elsa took Ms Badingah from her mother's flat to work in the Jalan Minyak household.

The four accused began suspecting that she was stealing their money and other small valuables.

Once, after Ms Badingah denied stealing their cellphones, Nur Rizan and her brother ordered her to take off her blouse.

They then bound her wrists with a bathrobe sash, after which Nur Rizan poured hot liquid wax from a melted candle over her head and back.

Pressing for a stiff sentence, DPP Morris said that over about two months, the victim was assaulted in variously 'morbidly creative ways' in a campaign of 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment amounting to torture'.

Ms Badingah, who had serious and extensive injuries, feared her abusers and for her life. One day, she jumped out of the kitchen window of the second-storey flat and ran for her life.

DPP Morris said that, by all accounts, the reactions of the accused were out of proportion to their respective triggering events.

Citing the Prime Minister's National Day Rally speech for Singapore to become a gracious society, the DPP argued that the considerations behind enacting heavier punishments for maid abusers 10 years ago had become more relevant now.

'As such, maid abuse, today more than ever before, cannot be tolerated, and perpetrators of extreme instances of abuse must be duly penalised,' she said.

Defence lawyer S.S. Dhillon said his clients were extremely remorseful for their actions, which were born of frustration. He said the case had brought immense shame to the family.

A Ministry of Manpower spokesman said the number of substantiated maid abuse cases handled by the police fell from 157 cases in 1997 to 68 last year.

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About this case

The accused are Nur Rizan Mohd Sazali, 18; her brother, Muhammad Iz'aan, 20; a family friend Elsa Elyana Said, 25; and the siblings' mother, Maselly Abdul Aziz, 38.

Nur Rizan admitted to pouring hot wax on Indonesian maid Badingah's head and forcibly extracting two of her front teeth. Three other charges were considered. She was jailed for 26 months.

Muhammad Iz'aan admitted to caning her. He was jailed for six weeks. A charge of binding the maid's wrists was considered.

Elsa, Ms Badingah's employer, will be sentenced on Oct 16 for punching the maid for not asking for permission to take a bath, and for aiding in the tooth extraction.

Maselly, who is jobless, had at first pleaded guilty to two charges of maid abuse and a summons for employing a foreign worker without a valid permit, but she disputed the statement of facts.

District Judge Jill Tan then told her that if she disagreed with the facts, she should not plead guilty. Maselly then cried, apologised and said she was pleading guilty after all, but the judge rejected her plea.