Woman who said voices told her to abuse maid has jail term doubled

A maid abuser had her prison sentence more than doubled to seven years after she appealed to the High Court to avoid jail time on grounds that she heard voices telling her to hurt the domestic worker.

- Selina Lum

Anita Damu, 57, was initially sentenced to two years and seven months' jail in 2018, after a district judge accepted two psychiatric reports that she had abused the victim under the influence of auditory hallucinations.

This explanation has since been rejected by the court.

In increasing her sentence on May 26, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said the sentences imposed by the lower court on each of the charges she faced were manifestly inadequate.

"Among other things, they were infected by the erroneous assumption that the acts of abuse were caused by the auditory hallucinations," he said.

Anita, who is also known as Shazana Abdullah, had inflicted serious physical and psychological abuse on her 29-year-old Indonesian helper between 2014 and 2015.

The abuse came to light in April 2015 after a Ministry of Manpower officer received information that the maid was being abused by her employer, and visited the flat.

The officer reported the matter to the police after observing that the helper had welts on her face, burn marks on her hands and scars on her body.