Hong Kong employer facing maid abuse charge speaks about call from agent claiming she can settle matter
Agency gave warning that abuse of domestic helpers was big news after Erwiana case
PUBLISHED : Monday, 26 January, 2015, 10:40pm
UPDATED : Monday, 26 January, 2015, 11:50pm
Chris Lau [email protected]
Anis Andriyani arrives at the District Court.Photo: K. Y. Cheng
An employer who has denied wounding her Indonesian maid on Monday told the District Court about a call from an employment agency in which an employee claimed she would "settle the matter for her".
The accused, Ngan Suk-wai, said the call came from a woman called Elaine from Sunlight Employment Agency, which had referred her maid, Anis Andriyani, to her. She said Elaine compared her case to the widely reported abuse allegations involving Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih.
"She said this kind of case was quite sensitive at the time," Ngan recalled being told, although she said she had no idea what had happened at the time.
Elaine told Ngan that Anis had complained that she had "beaten" her that morning.
Ngan went on to ask: "What is there to settle?"
The employer said she rang the police after a few more exchanges with the agency and contact with security guards in her building.
But when she returned to her flat to find out what was happening, she said police arrested her.
Ngan, 40, has denied one count of wounding with intent. It is alleged that on February 14 last year, the employer dragged Anis to the kitchen and cut her left ring finger in her Pokfulam Gardens flat because the maid used a broomstick to scare the employer's barking corgi.
The employer took to the witness box on Monday to defend herself after Judge Gary Lam Kar-yan ruled that she had a case to answer after hearing the prosecutor's case.
The defendant told the court that before she left home, there was nothing unusual as far as she was concerned.
The court also heard that Ngan was a caring employer. She told the court that she bought Anis clothes when the maid first arrived in the middle of winter and treated her to lunch at a restaurant in the International Finance Centre on her first day at work.
Further, she said her daughter, who was about to sit the Diploma of Secondary Education examinations, took a day off from school on the following day to look after the maid.
During previous hearings, the maid failed to explain why her actual injury did not match the way she said she had sustained it, despite a medical report which suggested that the injury was not self-inflicted.
Senior forensic pathologist Chan Wai-kwok, who wrote the report, yesterday explained that the conclusion was reached based on the photographs and descriptions provided to him by the police. However, it did not include evidence from Anis, implying that self-harm could not be entirely ruled out.
The court will hear concluding submissions from the prosecution and defence today.
The employer of Erwiana, Law Wan-tung, faces 10 charges of assault and intimidation, which also involve two other maids. She has denied the charges. Judge Amanda Woodcock will deliver her verdict on February 10.
