One woman admits to having caused the worst to happen to her maid: the victim weighed only 24 kilos at the time of her death.

Sylvie Claire / February 24, 2021

A Singaporean woman admitted starving, beating and killing her Burmese maid who weighed only 24 kilograms after a year of abuse, according to prosecutors, who called it one of the worst cases of abuse in the city-state's history.

Singapore has about 250,000 domestic servants who generally come from poor Asian countries. And cases of mistreatment are legion.

But the abuses endured by Piang Ngaih Don until her death in 2016 had rarely been seen in the city, the young woman having been kicked, beaten with a broom, suffocated and burned with an iron, according to court documents consulted by AFP.

Gaiyathiri Murugayan, 40, pleaded guilty Tuesday to 28 counts, including that of voluntary manslaughter. Sentenced to life imprisonment, she will serve her sentence at a later date.

Piang Ngaih Don was hired in 2015 by Ms. Gaiyathiri and her husband, a police officer, to care for their four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son.

Previously, the maid received very little food and lost nearly 40% of her weight, eventually weighing only 24 kilos at the time of her death in July 2016. She was only allowed to sleep five hours a night.