Abused maid says Singaporean employer promised to pay her if she lied to police

An Indonesian domestic worker, who was allegedly abused by a couple, told a court on Thursday that her male employer said he would pay her salary for two years and buy her an air ticket home if she helped him.

Fitriyah, 33, said this happened when she was in her employer Tay Wee Kiat's car near Khatib where Tay's father lives. He told her that police and Ministry of Manpower officers were at his home. "He told me not to inform officers that he hit me and hit Moe Moe Than, and that Moe Moe Than was the one who can't work and look after children,'' she said.

She said Tay, an IT manager, told her that if she helped him, he would pay her full salary and buy her an air ticket to go back to Indonesia. Tay had gone to fetch Fitriyah from his father's home as she was needed to help in investigation that day - Dec 12, 2012 - following allegations by Than of maid abuse. Than had returned to Singapore from Yangon, Myanmar, shortly after she was repatriated after working for the Tays for 10 months in 2012. She said she came back as she wanted to report the employers and did not want others to go through what she had.

Asked by Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohulabalan what her reaction was when she heard Tay say those things, Fitriyah said she was thinking if she agreed to help him, she would be able to complain to the officer. But in reality, she did not want to listen to Tay. But she told him that she would help.

Back at the couple's flat, she saw both police and MOM officers. Asked by two female police officers if she was hit, Fitriyah denied this because she was ''scared''. Later, when the officers took her into a room, she told them that she was beaten up. "I informed them sir and ma'am hit me. They checked my body for injuries. My forehead was still swollen....'' she said in Bahasa Indonesia through an interpreter.

She was taken away by the police and sent to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for a medical check-up.

She later stayed at the Good Shepherd Centre in Yishun until April last year when she returned to Indonesia.

She came back in August last year and has found a new job in Singapore. She is the prosecution's second witness at the continued trial of Tay, 38, who has claimed trial to 10 charges of abusing her and two of bribing a witness and instructing her to make a false statement that he did not physically abuse Than.

Tay's wife, Chia Yun Ling, 41, faces two charges of slapping Fitriyah and punching her on the forehead. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network