• The Attorney-General had sought the highest possible charge for Gaiyathiri Murugayan who abused her helper
• The charge was later lowered because of the evidence available, Law Minister K Shanmugam said
• Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said a review of the safeguards against abusive employers and the reporting system for doctors is underway

SINGAPORE — The abuse of Myanmar domestic worker Piang Ngaih Don who died five years ago was so egregious that the Attorney-General himself directed prosecutors to press for the highest possible charge against her employer, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam revealed.

“The first charge was intentional murder, for which the death penalty could have been the possible punishment. But, because of the evidence that was available, it was then brought down to culpable homicide,” he told reporters in a video conference on Thursday (Feb 25).

Mr Shanmugam said that the bestiality of Piang’s employer was “shocking”.  

Piang was 24 when she died on July 26, 2016 at her employer’s Bishan flat. She had been working for Gaiyathiri Murugayan’s family for about a year and weighed just 24kg after being deprived of food.

The charges against Gaiyathiri were more serious than those for cases of foreign domestic worker abuse that surface more often before the authorities, Mr Shanmugam said. 

“I am sure I speak for many Singaporeans when I express our complete abhorrence for what happened.

“None of these words describe adequately what happened to her… the beastiality of the conduct was shocking.”

In the High Court on Tuesday, Gaiyathiri, 40, pleaded guilty to violently abusing Piang over nine months until she died.

She admitted to 28 charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, wrongful restraint, and causing hurt or grievous hurt to Piang.

After her arrest in 2016, she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, which a psychiatrist found had substantially contributed to her committing the offences.

Prosecutors reduced her murder charge on account of her mental condition and have sought the maximum sentence of life imprisonment. 

The sentencing will be at a later date.

Gaiyathiri’s husband, suspended police staff sergeant Kevin Chelvam, 42, and her mother Prema S Naraynasamy, 61, also face charges related to the abuse. Their cases are before the courts. 

Mr Shanmugam said that regardless of the outcome of Chelvam’s case, he will face internal police disciplinary proceedings once the case comes to a close.

Chelvam has five charges against him, including voluntarily causing hurt to Piang, giving false information to a police investigator, and removing evidence in the form of a closed-circuit television system. 

He has been suspended from service since Aug 8, 2016, about two weeks after the police were first called to the family’s flat at Block 145 Bishan Street 11.

An autopsy in the wake of Piang’s death uncovered 31 recent scars and 47 external injuries all over her body. Her hyoid bone — a U-shaped bone in the neck that supports the tongue — was also fractured, most likely from Gaiyathiri holding her by the neck and shaking her like a rag doll, a forensic pathologist had found.

Noting the complexity of the case, Mr Shanmugam said that it had taken some time before it was heard in court.

Surveillance footage had to be examined to formulate the charges and numerous psychiatric assessments done to evaluate Gaiyathiri’s mental state when she committed the crimes.

“It's not easy in such cases because there is no independent evidence. The foreign domestic worker has passed away and you will only have the words of the people who are accused or related family members,” he said.

GOVERNMENT REVIEW UNDERWAY

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo told reporters at the same press conference that the Government has been reviewing the safeguards against abusive employers and the reporting system for doctors who detect signs of possible abuse or distress in foreign domestic workers. 

These are part of the regular reviews by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) of its policies and initiatives, TODAY understands.

Mrs Teo said that the review covers three key areas: Safeguards against abusive employers, the reporting system for doctors and the involvement of community and partner organisations.

"Let me be absolutely clear that there is no place for abuse of foreign domestic workers in Singapore. There is simply no place for it. This is not the kind of society we are," she said, noting that while there are safeguards in place, Singapore must do better to prevent "such an egregious incident from happening again".

Mrs Teo noted that foreign domestic workers must attend a mandatory half-yearly medical examination and the compliance rate for this is high.

In Piang’s case, she underwent her medical examination in January 2016 and passed it. She visited the same doctor again in May that year for a runny nose, cough and swelling on her legs.

On both occasions, however, nothing adverse was flagged to the authorities.

Asked whether this case showed a lapse in the reporting procedures, Mrs Teo said that this was something the Ministry of Health would have to examine. 

The review, she stressed, is underway and the authorities will give more details later.

Since 2017, the authorities have been informing doctors about their duty to report signs of abuse to the police or MOM when they carry out regular medical examinations for foreign domestic workers.

The Government is also looking at how to better involve the community and partner organisations to detect signs of distress earlier.

In a statement on Wednesday giving more details of Piang’s employment, MOM said that there are safeguards to prevent the abuse of these workers and it would look into how it can support healthcare providers in identifying cases of possible abuse.

It added that Gaiyathiri’s family had hired four other domestic workers before Piang, but it did not receive complaints or “adverse feedback” from those workers. 

Asked whether these frequent changes of workers raised red flags, Mrs Teo said that such employers face stricter requirements.

MOM officers will, for example, interview them to understand why their previous hires did not work out.

The ministry said that it would intensify its efforts to reach out to and interview all foreign domestic workers about their well-being. 

Elaborating on this, Mrs Teo said that her ministry would explore a range of options and take in suggestions on how it could do so.

She emphasised again that all first-time foreign domestic workers are provided with resources to report abuse to the authorities, including a phone line to call.

“It also requires the entire community to be alert. And I think in this case, it's quite illustrative that the support could have been better.”