SINGAPORE — A Singaporean couple made their domestic helper drink dirty water mixed with dog hair and a floor cleaning agent, made her pour hot water over herself and asked her to knock her head hard on the floor.

For these abuses and more, interior designer Lim Toon Leng, 44, and beauty salon manager Linda Seah Lei Sie, 39, were on Friday (Jan 18) convicted of multiple charges of voluntarily causing hurt to Ms Phyu Phyu Mar, a Myanmar national.

They will return to court for sentencing on Feb 11.

Lim, who is also director and shareholder of Anew Me Beauty Aesthetic salon that his wife manages, is found guilty of one charge of voluntarily causing hurt to the helper.

Seah was convicted of five similar charges and one count of causing hurt by means of poison.

Ms Phyu Phyu Mar, whose age is not known, was working for them in their Punggol flat.

After a 16-day trial, the court was convinced that between August and October in 2016, Seah had forced Ms Phyu Phyu Mar to pour scalding hot water on her own shoulders on two occasions and grabbed her hair to such an extent that a chunk of it fell out later.

Seah also made the helper knock her head on the kitchen floor until she could hear it from the living room, and used her mobile phone to hit the helper multiple times on her head, eye and hand.

Her husband punched the helper twice on her forehead because he thought she had thrown away his spectacles when she did not do so.

Ms Phyu Phyu Mar was hired in February 2016 to take care of the couple’s five-year-old daughter as well as to accompany Seah to the beauty salon a few times a week.

One of the reasons why the attacks took place was because Seah wanted to observe Ms Phyu Phyu Mar at work through a surveillance camera. Seah got angry when she could not sleep early, because the helper was working very slowly and she had to wait for her to finish her chores.

The court heard that by October 2016, Ms Phyu Phyu Mar’s weight had plummeted from 50kg to 38kg because she was given a restricted diet of uncooked noodles and biscuits.

It was also revealed in the course of the trial that after Ms Phyu Phyu Mar scalded herself, Seah gave her a needle to puncture the blisters that developed instead of taking her to seek medical attention.

In finding the couple guilty, District Judge Olivia Low said: “(Seah) and Lim sought to portray themselves as considerate and concerned employers, but this could not be further from the truth.”

Seah, for instance, tried to explain during the trial that her helper’s drastic weight loss was because Ms Phyu Phyu Mar wanted to get slim for aesthetic reasons, but District Judge Low said it was an explanation that was “simply untenable”.

Ms Phyu Phyu Mar did not report the abuses until one of Seah’s employees at the salon called the police on her behalf on Oct 14, 2016 — a day after Lim punched her and Seah hit her with a mobile phone.

The next day, police officers took Ms Phyu Phyu Mar to the hospital for a medical check-up, where it was ascertained that she had scald marks on her body, bruises on her left eye and left hand, as well as swells on the knuckles on her left hand.

Seah had pulled Ms Phyu Phyu Mar’s hair until a chunk of it fell out after the police report was made, but her lawyers argued during the trial that the victim had pulled her own hair because she was worried that she would go to jail after reporting her employers.

District Judge Low was not persuaded. She said: “While I note that (Seah) had been careful prior to this incident to not directly cause hurt to Phyu Phyu Mar but make Phyu Phyu Mar harm herself, (Seah) had in her anger perceived that Phyu Phyu Mar did not trust her and pulled her hair.”

For each charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a maid, the couple could be jailed up to three years and fined up to S$7,500.

For causing hurt by means of poison, Seah could be jailed up to 10 years, fined and caned.

Seah remains out on a S$10,000 bail, while Lim is out on a S$5,000 bail.