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SINGAPORE – Within her first week of work, the 23-year-old Indonesian domestic helper was molested by her employer.
Her employer violated her – at times with other family members at home – on four occasions for over a week, until she fled the house one night.
She took a taxi to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) Services Centre and had to sleep at a nearby bus stop till the next morning when the building opened.
Her employer, Francis Lim Boon Liang, 49, was sentenced to 11 months’ imprisonment on Friday (July 13) after pleading guilty to two molest charges. Two other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
District Judge Marvin Bay called the sales manager’s acts “grossly intrusive”, adding: “This was a brazen and cynical exploitation of a domestic helper, a person rendered vulnerable as a result of her dependence on her employer for shelter and sustenance, for his own sexual gratification.”
The court heard that Lim hired the domestic helper, who cannot be named due to a gag order, on Nov 24, 2016. She stayed at his home with him, his wife and two children.
Sometime during the first week she was employed, between 7 and 9pm, Lim had just showered and saw the domestic helper alone in the kitchen. His son was in the living room while his daughter was in her room.
Lim approached his victim and asked her to kiss him. When she refused, the topless Lim exposed his private parts to her and asked her to perform a sex act on him. She again refused several times, but he continued insisting that she do so. Feeling pressured and thinking she had no choice but to comply, she eventually caved in.
He then went to his room to put on a T-shirt. The victim felt angry, helpless and embarrassed, but did not report the matter to the police immediately as she still respected Lim as her employer, and did not want to cause problems between him and his wife.
A week later, the victim was sent to Lim’s mother’s home to do household chores there, as the previous domestic helper who tended to his mother was sent back to the maid agency.
Two days later, on Dec 3, 2016, Lim brought his son over to place him in his mother’s care.
At about 11am, when the victim was alone in the kitchen, he approached her from behind, put his hand under her shirt and touched her chest. He also kissed her cheeks and guided her hand into his shorts, despite her refusal to do so.
His mother was in her room and his son was in another bedroom when he committed these acts. He then let go of her hand and left.
The next evening, when her employer’s mother was asleep, the victim left the house. She took a taxi to the MOM Services Centre, located at Bendemeer Road, using the S$80 Lim had given her as pay for not taking her off days.
When she got there, she realised it was closed. She then slept at a nearby bus stop till 6.30am the next day, before heading into MOM to report the matter.
Lim cried in court as Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Goh Yi Ling asked for at least 12 months’ jail. The DPP noted that the domestic helper he had molested was a vulnerable victim due to her powerless position, unable to reject his advances.
In mitigation, Lim’s lawyer Sunil Sudheesan said his client experienced several personal difficulties in 2016. His brother passed away in June after a sudden illness, while his father passed away from a stroke several days before he committed his first offence.
“He had a clean life before this. This was triggered by family trauma… he is very sorry for acting out of character,” Mr Sunil added.
For outrage of modesty, Lim could have been jailed up to two years, fined, caned, or any combination of the three.
