An Indonesian maid who was abused by her employer eventually resorted to escaping from her employer's place of residence by climbing down 15 storeys, balcony by balcony, until she eventually reached the ground floor, according to court documents seen by Mothership.

At the time of the incident, Sulis Setoywati was 24-years-old.

As such, Nuur Audadi binte Yusoff, a Singtel employee who had been deployed to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to support its contact centre, has since pleaded guilty to six charges of voluntarily causing hurt to Sulis, with an additional nine taken into consideration, CNA reported.

Worked with the family for six months, abuse began in Jan. 2018

Court documents further revealed that Sulis had worked for Nuur Audadi for six months, from Dec. 2017 to May 2018, with a monthly income of S$580. She had first arrived in Singapore in the middle of 2017.

The first case of abuse happened in Jan. 2018, when Nuur Audadi's daughter cried sometime after midnight causing Audadi herself to wake up.

Upon checking on her child and realising that Sulis had forgotten to apply baby ointment, she became angry and slapped the maid twice, she also spat at Sulis.

The following month, Nuur Audadi swung a glass cup at Sulis for not preparing breakfast for her, dragged the maid by her hair to the bathroom when her children had not been bathed, and dragged Sulis by the hair again when she was singing to the children.

After these incidents, Sulis cried and asked for a transfer as a result of the abuse.

In response, Noor Audadi promised not to hit her again and Sulis continued working for Nuur Audadi as she needed to send her income back to Indonesia to support her child.

In addition, Sulis was also grateful when Noor Audadi took her to MOM on April 11, 2018, to report her' former employer for wages which were owed.

Abuse picked up again in April, slapped repeatedly

However, the abuse picked up again in the same month.

At some point in April, Sulis was instructed by Noor Audadi to clean her husband's motorcycle and helmet. Both Noor Audadi and her husband left the house afterwards.

Sulis then realised that she had forgotten to ask Noor Audadi for the house key after putting the children to sleep, and was therefore unable to leave the house to clean the motorcycle and helmet.

When Noor Audadi returned home and discovered that Sulis had not done as she was instructed, she became angry, accused Sulis of making excuses, hit her over the head with an umbrella handle and poked her stomach several times.

Beginning from April 21, 2018, Noor Audadi also discovered that Sulis had a mobile phone and went through her personal chats and photos.

When she found out that Sulis had uploaded photos of her children to Facebook, Noor Audadi became irate, slapped Sulis on her face and hand with the phone several times, causing her face to bleed, and threw the phone on the ground causing it to crack.

Noor Audadi then confiscated the phone, and slapped and pulled Sulis' hair on a near-daily basis for a week. At the end of the week, when Sulis told Noor Audadi that she had asked the agent for a transfer, Noor Audadi slapped her on the face again, stating that she had paid a lot of money.

Maid became frightened

At this point, Sulis was afraid.

On April 29, 2018, she managed to retrieve her mobile phone from Noor Audadi's bedroom and hid it as she wanted to call her agency to ask for a transfer.

When Noor Audadi realised the phone was no longer in her bedroom, she questioned Sulis who taking the mobile phone. Furious, Noor Audadi took a comb, poked Sulis on her forehead forcefully, slapped her and pulled her hair.

She then made Sulis search for her mobile phone until midnight, made her sleep in the living room, and locked Sulis' room door as well as the unit's living door to prevent her from running away.

The following day, Noor Audadi pulled Sulis' hair and kicked her in the head a few times before leaving for work.

When night came, she asked Sulis to prepare milk for her two children. She then asked Sulis why she was taking so long and said that Sulis was a prostitute and was flirting with her husband.

When she then asked the maid if her private parts were itchy and if she wanted to seduce her husband, Sulis, having misheard her and not understanding, replied,"Yes, ma'am."

Noor Audadi then became furious and hit Sulis on the back of her head and her back multiple times with a broom, all the while scolding her for being a prostitute.

As such, at about 2am, Sulis decided to escape, with her climb down taking nearly the entire early morning. She escaped from the balcony, throwing her clothes down first, and then climbing down 15 levels "balcony by balcony" till she reached the ground floor.

She then left, lodged a police report in the afternoon on the advice of her agent and sought medical treatment at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

Prosecution: "A case of vicious abuse"

In its submissions to the court seen by Mothership, the prosecution stated that this was "a case of vicious abuse" by the accused and called for a sentence of at least 10 months' imprisonment.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kee En Chong further noted that Noor Audadi "was triggered by the flimsiest of excuses to fly into a rage" and that every injury entailed a combination of both physical and psychological harm.

The only mitigating factor was Noor Audadi's plea of guilt which had been done so a week before trial, he added in the submissions.

In the meantime, Sulis has been residing in the Indonesian Embassy, awaiting the conclusion of the proceedings.

Court documents further stated that she still remained afraid of Noor Audadi.

For voluntarily causing hurt, Noor Audadi can be imprisoned for a jail term of up to three years, or a fine of up to S$5,000, or be subjected to both.

In addition, given that the offences were against a domestic worker, the penalties can be increased up to one-and-a-half times.

Top photo by Matthias Ang