SINGAPORE: A domestic helper has been jailed for one week for lodging a false report that her employer’s husband had raped her.
The name of the 36-year-old Indonesian national was redacted from court documents obtained by CNA on Thursday (Oct 16), and the victim cannot be named due to a gag order protecting his identity.
The court heard during the guilty plea on Tuesday that the maid began working for a woman’s household sometime around May 2023. She cared for the woman’s one-month-old son, among other duties.
Sometime in September 2024, the maid and her employer’s 40-year-old husband, a Singapore permanent resident, began engaging in sexual activities with each other.
These acts were consensual in nature, said the prosecutor, and the pair had sex on at least four occasions in the home, with the last occasion on Feb 24 this year.
At about 1.30am on Feb 25, the police received a report of a sexual offence.
A police officer located the maid at a housing block in Ubi and ascertained that she had lodged a report, claiming that she was sexually assaulted by the victim.
The maid told the officer that the man had forced himself on her more than once. She also said that the man occasionally switched off the closed-circuit television cameras and touched her inappropriately.
The maid was taken to hospital that same day, with the police officers accompanying her.
At the hospital, another two officers interviewed the maid. She claimed that the man had removed her clothes and raped her on Feb 24. She also said he had done so on two other occasions in September 2024.
She said she had delayed lodging a report as she was afraid that her employers would repatriate her.
In light of her responses, the police officers referred the case to the serious sexual crime branch, and arrangements were made for the maid to go for a sexual assault medical examination.
She went for the examination and was interviewed by another police officer. She said the victim had performed sex acts on her and raped her four times, with the first incident sometime in September 2024 and the last on Feb 24, 2025.
The maid also said she accepted “extra pocket money” of between S$50 and S$100 from the victim, but maintained that the sex acts were not done with consent.
