An Indonesian maid was yesterday jailed for 1½ years for injuring a 4-year-old boy she was looking after. The boy suffered burns on his shoulder, thigh and arm after she had punished him by placing a hot iron on several parts of his body. (Straits Times 6 May 2004) (H6)

The Indonesian Embassy here yesterday said that from March 2004, it will be compulsory for Indonesian maids coming to Singapore to work to take a one-day test in Batam. The test includes a health check, an oral test on basic English and a practical on various household tasks. Since 1999, 96 Indonesian maids have died in Singapore, said the embassy. (Straits Times 16 Feb 2004) (H4)

From 1 April 2004, first-time maid employers will have to attend compulsory S$20 half-hour orientation courses conducted by human resource professionals. Otherwise, the employers will not have the maid's work permit application approved. There are 140,000 maids here. (Straits Times 7 Feb 2004) (H1)

An Indonesian maid was jailed for 10 months yesterday for scalding a toddler in her care on 19 Aug 2003. Eni Suciana Sukarman, 22, admitted splashing a cup of hot water on the two-year-old girl. (Straits Times 29 Aug 2003 H8)

  An Indonesian maid was yesterday jailed for 15 months for attempting to cause harm to her employer's 63-year-old mother-in-law Madam LIANG Aizhu. Ria Rohati Riswandi, 19, had taken a packet of soya bean milk, poured some into a glass and stirred some glue into it before pouring the tainted milk back into the packet on 10 Feb 2003. The old lady did not drink it. (Straits Times 10 Apr 2003)(H6)

  A maid pleaded guilty to seven charges of child abuse in a district court yesterday. Aan Andriyani, 24, was caught on camera abusing her employer's four-month-old daughter in December 2002 and January 2003. (Straits Times 25 Mar 2003)(H4)

  A doctor turned consultant for a firm producing medical software was jailed for four months yesterday after she admitted to burning her Indonesian maid's arm with an iron. LIM May Ling, 42, initially faced eight other charges of abusing her maid, Miss Lilis Suryani, 20, but these accusations were withdrawn yesterday. (Straits Times 25 Feb 2003) (H5)

  Printing assistant QUAK Yik Yin, 48 was yesterday sentenced to six years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to three counts of molesting and wrongfully restraining his 21-year-old Indonesian maid at his flat in Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3. (Straits Times 5 Feb 2003)

  An Indonesian maid jumped to her death from a 19th-storey Queenstown flat on 4 Oct 2001 after she was slapped twice in two days by her employer's wife. CHAN Jin Mun, 32, who admitted slapping the maid, Madam Kesi Rusik, 28, was sentenced to two weeks' jail yesterday. (Straits Times 18 Dec 2002) (H8)

  A man who molested his Indonesian maid was sentenced to five years in jail and eight strokes of the cane on two counts of aggravated molestation. Hassan Kalok, 39, molested the 19-year-old maid on the eve of Hari Raya last year when she was changing the curtains in the bedroom of his Yishun flat. (Straits Times 17 Dec 2002) (H5)

  A Filipino maid has been jailed for six months for ill-treating a five-year-old boy under her care. Glory Aragon Ganiban, 28, pleaded guilty to slapping and pinching the boy at a flat in Clementi between July 1 and 12 this year. (Straits Times 10 Dec 2002) (H6)

  The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday announced that accredited maid agencies now have to renew their licence only once every three years, instead of annually. MOM and the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case), which handles the CaseTrust accreditation scheme launched in May 2002, will also put the names of accredited agents on their Web sites. (Straits Times 31 Oct 2002) (H2)

  An Indonesian maid who jumped out of her employer's seventh-floor bedroom window and landed on her feet survived the fall. She then walked to a nearby bus-stop in Pasir Ris Drive 6 where she got a taxi-driver to call the police and ambulance service. A District Court heard yesterday that Ms Siti Nurkhasanah Muhidin, 20, had been locked inside the room for four days by her employer who had also hurt her physically. (Straits Times 15 Oct 2002) (H6)

  A man was sentenced to 12 months' jail yesterday for secretly taping his 25-year-old Filipino maid changing her clothes by hiding a video camera in her room. TOO Tien Koh, 40, was also fined S$2,000 for possessing four video tapes of obscene films. (Straits Times 5 Oct 2002) (H8)

  Three women were each jailed for six months yesterday for making an Indonesian maid take off her clothes and do squats repeatedly. Kamisah Mohamed, 27, Haryati Sahat, 31, and Zuriana Mohamed Yusof, 28, were customer service executives at NBK Employment Agency in Joo Chiat Road. Kamisah was also fined S$1,000.  The maid, aged 21, had been sent to her maid agency for counselling after her employer complained about her poor work performance. But the two-hour counselling session turned into a humiliating ordeal. (Straits Times 20 Sep 2002) (H5)

  A man was yesterday sentenced to nine months' jail and ordered to be given three strokes of the cane for outraging the modesty of his maid. Salim Hassan, 45, had crept into his maid's room in the early hours of the morning and touched her private parts, through a blanket, while she was sleeping in his Yishun Street 22 flat. Salim was arrested 10 days after his wife took the maid to lodge a police report. (Straits Times 27 Aug 2002) (H4)

  A finance manager who had used a belt and a bamboo pole to hit her maid was yesterday jailed for six months. Joyce TAN Lee Mei, 43, abused her Indonesian maid, Miss Purnari, 25, on four occasions between November 2001 and January this year. The maid called the police from a void-deck phone. (Straits Times 14 Aug 2002) (H4)

  Indonesian maid Sulika Admobadi, 27, was yesterday jailed for two years and six weeks for threatening to jump from the 15th floor of a building with her employer's two-year-old daughter because he did not grant her a transfer. Her employer, British national Mr Hughes, 38, managed to grab her to stop her from jumping off. (Straits Times 12 Jun 2002) (H2) 

  Indonesian maid Sundarti Supriyanto, 22, was charged in court yesterday with the murder of her employer and her employer's young daughter. Madam Angie NG Wee Peng, 34, and POH Shiqi, 3, were found dead with stab wounds in a blaze at Madam POH's office in Block 165 Bukit Merah Central on May 28. (Straits Times 12 Jun 2002 (3)

  Maid agencies' accreditation with the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) will eventually become mandatory, Manpower Minister LEE Boon Yang announced in Parliament on May 18. The law will make it compulsory for maid agencies, which now bring in more than 80 per cent of the 140,000 maids here, to be accredited in order to have their licences renewed. This will ensure that the agencies maintain acceptable professional and acceptable ethical standards, and do not follow dubious practices. (Straits Times 28 May 2002) (H3)

  A 35-year-old part-time clerk who poked her Indonesian maid on the head with a wooden chopstick and pinched her all over the body was sentenced to three months' jail on Wednesday. TAN Kim Boey pleaded guilty to assaulting the maid, Miss Siti Solikhatun Nasirun, 22, on Dec 27, 2000. (Straits Times 17 May 2002) (H7)

  An Indonesian maid who lied to the police to cover up the fact she had stolen S$2,900 in cash and S$11,250 in jewellery from her employer was yesterday jailed for seven months by a district court. Sulastri, 33, had cut her own thigh and rubbed a coin repeatedly around her neck to make it look as if she was injured during a struggle with a robber. She also forced open a bedroom window grille at her employer's Eunos flat. (Straits Times 26 Apr 2002) (H5)

  The owner of a maid agency yesterday admitted outraging the modesty of a Filipino maid at his home in Lemon Avenue on 12 April 2001. KOH Gim Phiaw, 29, had taken the maid into his bedroom and touched her breast while she was under his care. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail and three strokes of the cane. (Straits Times 26 Apr 20020 (H5)

  Police detained a 33-year-old Indonesian maid yesterday for stealing from her employer and giving a false report. A day earlier, she had claimed to have fought off two burglars in her employer's flat in Eunos and sustained injuries during the attack. Jewellery worth S$18,000 and S$2,900 in cash were recovered. (Straits Times 18 Apr 2002) (H2)

  An Indonesian maid who shook a three-month-old baby so hard that it caused his skull to fracture was jailed for 15 months yesterday for wilfully ill-treating him. Maria Fransiska Dewi, 23, admitted shaking the baby at her employer's home in Jalan Bukit Merah on Dec 5 last year. (Straits Times 23 Mar 2002) (H7) 

  Hospital employee Jennicia CHOW Yen Ping, 30, who bit her maid on the breast and nipples repeatedly was sentenced to five years' jail, one of the stiffest penalties for maid abuse meted out in Singapore. The maid is now under the care of the Indonesian Embassy. (Straits Times 19 Mar 2002) (4)

  A customer relations officer at a private hospital yesterday pleaded guilty to causing "severe bodily pain" and nine other charges of maid abuse. These included splashing boiling water on the maid's left hand, forcing her right wrist to touch the rack of a hot oven, poking her thighs with a pair of scissors and hitting her head with the back of a chopper. Jennicia CHOW Yen Ping, 30, also bit her 19-year-old maid's breast and nipples repeatedly - through her T-shirt or on her bare skin - until one nipple fell off. CHOW, who has been active in community work, has been the assistant secretary and assistant treasurer of the Sembawang Citizens' Consultative Committee since May 1999. (Straits Times 5 Mar 2002) (H9)

  Employers who make their maids' lives hell by subjecting them to mental as well as physical abuse will be punished severely. The High Court has ruled that a combination of both types of abuse warrants a harsher punishment than that for physical abuse alone. (Straits Times 4 Mar 2002) (4) 

  A primary school teacher who slapped, punched and scalded her Indonesian maid with hot water was sent to jail for 10 months. HENG Kwee Huang was also fined S$3,000 after she was found guilty of all four counts of abusing her maid, Ms Yunmarmi, 24, at her flat in Block 627 Yishun Street 61 in July 1999.  HENG is appealing against the sentence. (Straits Times 21 Feb 2002) (H5)

    A maid who brandished a knife and charged towards her employer during an argument over a haircut was yesterday jailed for two months. Sulasmi Paiman, 21, had been working for Madam CHAN Fong Yin since Nov 4, 2000. (Straits Times 8 Jan 2002) (H5)

  A businessman who molested his 18-year-old maid on her first day of work was yesterday sentenced to 18 months' jail and nine strokes of the cane. KOO Lai Chuan, a father of three girls, aged 8, 12 and 14, brought the maid back to his Sengkang flat in Block 5 Buangkok South Farmway 1 from the maid agency on Oct 6 last year. At home, he said he wanted to check her body and molested her after removing her clothes, touching her breasts and other parts of her body. (Straits Times 28 Dec 2001) (H6)

  A consultant, CHEW Lee Cheng, 35, was sentenced to two months' jail yesterday after pleading guilty to two charges of causing hurt to her Filipino maid, Miss Beverly Dablo Go, 30, on March 6. A magistrate's court heard that CHEW slapped her maid and scratched her neck with her fingernails for buying the wrong brand of bread home. (Straits Times 21 Dec 2001)(H4)

  The Consumers Association of Singapore said it received 262 complaints against maid agencies this year, and most were about unfair contracts. It received 168 complaints last year - almost 100 fewer than this year. Of the 30 complaints the Ministry of Manpower receives every month, two are about unfair contracts. (Straits Times 11 Dec 2001)(H4)

  A businesswoman who slapped and scalded her maid with hot water was jailed for six months by a district court. Last month, TAN Peng Chen, 36, pleaded guilty to scalding Miss Ratna Indrawati, 35, at her Jalan Bukit Merah flat in March. (Straits Times 10 Dec 2001)(H1)

  Only four people were barred in 1997 from employing another foreign maid after having abused their last maid. But, the number has climbed to 8 in 1998, 20 in 1999 and 39 last year. This year, up to October, 33 maid abusers were barred by the Manpower Ministry from getting another maid. Since 1998, people who ill-treat or hurt their maids have faced more severe penalties, such as jail terms of seven years or more, instead of only a maximum five-year sentence. (Straits Times 10 Dec 2001) (H1)

  A man who molested his young Indonesian maid on her first day at work was yesterday found guilty of four sexual-abuse charges. He was convicted of touching the maid's breast and private parts on Oct 6 last year, on the pretext of checking her body when he took her home from the maid agency on her first day. KOO Lai Chuan, 42, whose bail was increased to S$20,000, had his case adjourned to Dec 27. (Straits Times 7 Dec 2001)(H4)

  An Indonesian maid died at a Bedok Reservoir Road flat on Sunday, apparently from injuries inflicted the day before. Her employer, a 46-year-old male freelance tourist guide, turned himself in at the Eunos Police Post that evening. The man, who lives in Chai Chee and is believed to be married with two children, was arrested for her murder. (Straits Times 4 Dec 2001) (6)

  A woman slapped her maid three times on the head, kicked her on the leg and punched her in the stomach for being slow in cleaning the baby's milk bottle. LIM Lan Eng, 41, a housewife and single parent, pleaded guilty to three charges of abusing her Indonesian maid, Miss Sulikah, 27, at her home in Marine Crescent. Magistrate Gilbert LOW postponed sentencing to Jan 2. LIM is out on S$10,000 bail. (Straits Times 28 Nov 2001) (H3)

  Yesterday TAN Peng Chen, 36, a businesswoman, pleaded guilty to two charges of causing hurt to her Indonesian maid, Ms Ratna Indrawati, 35. TAN lost her cool when her maid filled up a plastic water bottle with hot water, causing it to lose its shape. In a fit of temper, she grabbed the water bottle and splashed its contents over the maid. The Maid suffered burns to her waist as a result. (Straits Times 20 Nov 2001)(H3) 

  A part-time maid bashed her employer, 67, to death with a telephone and then robbed her of her valuables, the High Court heard yesterday. Thamayanthi, 27, an Indian national, is now on trial for murdering Madam Nagalingam Anjella on March 26 between 2pm and 6pm. (Straits Times 16 Nov 2001)(7)

  An employer who molested his Indonesian maid in his Serangoon Avenue 3 flat on Jan 15 this year was sentenced to 42 months' jail and six strokes of the cane for the sexual assault. In sentencing LIM Tow Suan, 40, a father of three, District Judge Mavis CHIONH said that the sentence must reflect the gravity of the crime. (Straits Times 13 Nov 2001)(H2) 

  A court heard that a young Indonesian maid pointed a knife at her employers' two-month-old baby and demanded that her passport be returned to her. This happened after Madam See Tho Sook Han, 29, had scolded the maid for dropping things at her Woodlands Avenue 6 flat on Friday evening. That threat from Suwanti Inkaprasetya, 19, landed her a six-month jail term yesterday. (Straits Times 11 Nov 2001 (5)

  A woman who was fined S$4,500 for slapping her Indonesian maid will now go to jail for 12 weeks instead. The Chief Justice yesterday allowed the appeal of the Public Prosecutor that the offence should attract a jail term. In yesterday's case, businesswoman CHONG Siew Chin, 43, assaulted her maid, Miss Bonasih Sarmo, 23, and told her to say she had fallen in the toilet if anyone asked her about the marks on her face. (Straits Times 9 Nov 2001)(3)

  Housewife Farida Begam Mohamed Artham, 27, who hit her maid with a slipper and the wooden handle of a scrubbing brush, had her three-month jail term tripled yesterday after the prosecution appealed against the lower court sentence. (Straits Times 2 Nov 2001)(4)

  A young domestic maid who made a false report claiming she had been raped by her employer's husband was jailed for two weeks yesterday. The truth is Suliyah Mat Ngali had sex willingly with Mr KOH Kong Guan, 54, the court heard. The 21-year-old pleaded guilty to giving false information to a police officer on May 19. She told the officer that Mr KOH, a retiree, had raped her at his Pine Grove apartment earlier that month. (Straits Times 6 Oct 2001)(H6)

  An Indonesian maid, who hid a dead foetus in a shoe box, and her Singaporean boyfriend, who helped her miscarry, were each jailed nine months yesterday. Dwi Astuti, 24, and handyman Roslan Osman, 36, who gave her two batches of anti-ulcer stomach pills, pleaded guilty to causing a miscarriage. (Straits Times 18 Sep 2001)(H2)

  A woman died in hospital after falling from a seventh-storey flat in Toa Payoh yesterday, clutching a bamboo pole with clothes hanging from it. Believed to be an Indonesian maid in her early 20s, the woman was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital but died two hours later. (Straits Times 12 Sep 2001)(H2)

  A maid fell to her death in Pasir Ris on Monday morning. Ms Kamisah Murdikin fell while cleaning the windows of the 10-storey flat in Block 544, Pasir Ris Street 51. Since the year began, five maids have fallen from high-rise flats. Only one survived the plunge.  (Straits Times 22 Aug 2001) (H2)

  A couple who pinched and caned their Indonesian maid repeatedly was yesterday sentenced to three months' jail and fined S$1,500 each. They are appealing against the district judge's decision. On 21 Jul 2001, LIM Chuan Huat, 42, and his wife, TAN Suan Kheng, 34, were convicted of abusing Ms Suprapti, 27, at their home in Choa Chu Kang Avenue 2 after a trial. (Straits Times 29 Jul 2001) (28)

  Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said last week that 21 maids had fallen from high-rise buildings since 1999. It said yesterday it did not have a breakdown by nationality. More than 140,000 maids work here, about one for every eight households. As many as half could be from Indonesia, agencies said.(Straits Times 20 Jul 2001) (H1)

    Jakarta: Indonesia has again imposed a temporary ban, effectively immediately, on the sending of maids to Singapore, in response to what the government said was the high number of accidental deaths of Indonesian maids in the republic since 1999.  Manpower and Transmigration Minister Alhilal Hamdi claimed yesterday that in the past 30 months, 43 Indonesian maids had fallen to their deaths while attempting to clean windows and other fixtures in high-rise buildings. At least one death was confirmed to be a suicide, while the rest were ruled as work-related fatalities, he said. Although his ministry's ruling is effective immediately, it will not force repatriation of those maids already working in Singapore. (Straits Times 19 Jul 2001) (6)

  A 21-year-old Indonesian maid is in critical condition after falling seven storeys from her employer's flat. Police said she was found lying on the ground at Blk 477 Pasir Ris Drive 6 early on Monday morning. She was, apparently, last seen in the kitchen hanging clothes out to dry. (Straits Times 27 Jun 2001)

  A housewife who used a broom handle to hit her maid on the head, stomach, back and shoulder and also slapped her with a slipper on the cheeks and forehead was sentenced to three months in jail. Farida Begum Mohammed Artham, 27, had been found guilty on 19 May 2001 after a trial. The assault took place on 30 Aug 1999 at Blk 496E Tampines Ave 9. Farida is appealing against the sentence. (Straits Times 2 Jun 2001)