UPDATE (23 Apr 2021): The 26-year-old helper has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering her employer.
The High Court rejected her defence of suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the crime.
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Back in 2016, Singaporeans were horrified when they learned of a domestic helper who was accused of stabbing her employer more than 90 times.
Testifying in court on Tuesday (6 Oct), Daryati – the Indonesian helper in question – claimed that she had merely wanted to scare her employer using the knife.
This came after the employer had reportedly refused to let her return home.
According to The Straits Times (ST), the 26-year-old domestic helper expressed her interest to return home in Jun 2016, just 2 months after she had started work in Singapore.
Daryati was reportedly worried about her family after they were uncontactable. The helper also said she was forced to work in Singapore against her will.
However, her employer Madam Seow did not allow her to return home — something Daryati felt “very angry” about, reports ST.
Hence, she hatched a plot with another helper in the Telok Kurau household to retrieve her passport from their employer’s possession.
Source
On 7 Jun 2016, Daryati carried out the attack, stabbing Madam Seow 98 times in the process, including to her neck, head, and face, reports CNA.
However, Daryati insisted in court that she had merely wanted to scare her 59-year-old employer into returning the passport.
She claimed that if she had intended to kill Madam Seow, a few stabs to her heart would do, in contrast to the 98 stab wounds found all over her employer’s body.
Daryati also told the court on Tuesday (6 Oct) that she had been raped by her older brother several times back when she was a teenager.
Though this happened some time back, she is still “affected” by the abuse, and is currently getting psychiatric treatment in prison, reports ST.
Daryati initially faced with a murder charge which carries the death penalty.
However, this was later turned reduced to a less severe murder charge. Prosecutors also asked for life imprisonment rather than capital punishment.
While Daryati initially pleaded guilty to the lesser murder charge, the conviction was “quashed” after she withdrew her guilty plea.
Instead, she hoped to receive a lower sentence by providing psychiatric evidence.
If the psychiatric claims are indeed true, we hope Daryati is currently receiving all the help she needs.
However, it doesn’t discount the fact that her actions had cost the life of another woman.
As the trial is ongoing, let’s refrain from making judgements against the accused, and let justice run its course.
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