Singapore’s High Court on Tuesday set out the general principles underpinning compensation and how they apply in a maid-abuse case, under which a Singaporean couple had been ordered to pay the 33-year-old Indonesian victim S$7,800 (US$5,800) in compensation.
Tay Wee Kiat, 39, and his 41-year-old wife Chia Yun Ling were convicted by a district court in 2016 of humiliating and degrading abuse of their Indonesian maid between February 2011 and December 2012, Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore) reported.
Two years later at the prosecution’s appeal hearing in March, Tay saw his jail term increased to 43 months from 28 months while Chia’s jail term remained at two months. The couple were also ordered to pay S$5,900 and S$1,900 respectively to the victim in compensation.
This Tuesday, the High Court issued its supplementary judgment grounds on the compensation issue.
Justice See Kee Oon, a member of the three-judge High Court appeal panel with Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Judge of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang, noted that it was appropriate to compensate the victim for the physical and psychological injuries inflicted by the offenders for which they would have been liable in tort.
The court agreed to the suggestion of ordering S$500 in compensation for each incidence of abuse. Given that Tay hurt the maid on 10 occasions, it worked out to S$5,000, while for Chia, it was S$1,000.
The maid should be further paid S$1,800 for the loss of her monthly wages of S$450 for four months, as she needed the time to heal her psychological injuries, during which time she could have worked for a new employer, the court added.