Upset that her domestic helper had bought the wrong type of vegetable, the woman threw a potato at the Indonesian maid, causing the victim’s nose to bleed.

Siti Faseha, 32, was jailed four weeks at the State Courts on Wednesday (27 June), after she pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt (VCH) to 31-year-old Suhaeni Saleh.

Two other VCH charges for separate earlier incidents – in which Siti pushed Suhaeni’s head into a wall and also slapped her – were taken into consideration for Siti’s sentencing.

Suhaeni began working for Siti in August 2015, and was tasked with caring for her employer’s two children, along with doing household chores and cooking. It was her first job in Singapore.

At around 11.40am on 13 July last year, Suhaeni returned from the market with salted eggs and potatoes, among other items.

While in the kitchen, Siti asked Suhaeni why the salted eggs were not washed. She also berated Siti for buying potatoes instead of onions as she had instructed.

“(Suhaeni) then kept quiet and looked down sheepishly,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Houston Johannus.

Furious at the mistake, Siti flung a potato at Suhaeni, which hit the latter’s face and caused her to bleed from the nose. Suhaeni ran to the toilet to wash off the blood.

Seeing this, Siti sat Suhaeni down and helped clean the blood off her nose. She then gave the maid some Panadol.

Suhaeni then told Siti to send her back to the maid agency she was hired from or to repatriate her but Siti begged for the maid to stay. Suhaeni left Siti’s home five days later and sought assistance at the Ministry of Manpower, which later referred the matter to the police.

On 20 July, Suhaeni was sent to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for a medical examination but was not found to have any external injuries.

On Wednesday, District Judge Kessler Soh said that maids were part of a vulnerable section of society that required protection from abuse. “Offenders must be aware that serious consequences will follow if abuse happens physically or emotionally,” he said, noting that the most recent incident of abuse was not an isolated one.

He added that though Siti was frustrated, she should not have overreacted. The judge took into account that Siti regretted her actions immediately and paid compensation to the maid.

In an earlier hearing, the prosecution sought six to eight weeks’ jail for Siti, whom it said reacted disproportionately to the situation. “The root cause of the dispute was very trivial,” said Johannus.

Siti’s lawyer, Faizal Wahyuni Huasen Waryouni, asked for a fine or a term of three to four weeks’ jail, noting that his client had not intended to hurt Suhaeni and had caused only minimal injury to the victim.

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