Fatal maid abuse trial: 'Instead of going out of room, she should've jumped down the kitchen window'

Samuel Devaraj
The Straits Times
July 25, 2023

After a maid climbed out of a corridor window of an HDB flat to go to a coffee shop, members of her employer’s family sent messages in a group chat wishing that she should have jumped down and died instead, and insulted her with vulgarities.

The 24-year-old maid, who died nine months later from abuse, had left the flat belonging to nurse Isabella Celestine Cyril James, and was later found by her ex-husband’s friend having a meal with another maid at a coffeeshop.

Ms Isabella was testifying at the trial of her former brother-in-law Kevin Chelvam on Tuesday when she recounted the incident at her Hougang flat and said it happened around the time the messages were sent by her and Chelvam’s then-wife Gaiyathiri Murugayan.

The maid Piang Ngaih Don, who was from Myanmar, started working for Chelvam’s family in May 2015 and died on July 26 a year later after prolonged abuse while under his employment.

Chelvam, a 40-year-old suspended police staff sergeant, is claiming trial to four charges. These include voluntarily causing hurt and abetment of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Ms Piang Ngaih Don by starvation. Another charge involves removing evidence in the form of a closed-circuit television (CCTV) recorder.

On Tuesday, Ms Isabella and her ex-husband Kishore K. Shanmugavel, who is Gaiyathiri’s brother, told the court that Ms Piang Ngaih Don would go over to their flat with Gaiyathiri’s mother Prema S. Naraynasamy from time to time.

On one such occasion, Ms Isabella said Prema called her to say that the maid had left by climbing out of the corridor window. She then told Mr Kishore, who was on reservist, what happened. He and his friend later went to the flat.

When Ms Isabella returned, she found Ms Piang Ngaih Don, Mr Kishore and his friend, who had located the maid at a coffeeshop.

On Tuesday, the court heard messages that were sent on Sept 23, 2015, to a chat group named “family members only” of which Chelvam, Prema, Gaiyathiri, Mr Kishore and Ms Isabella were a part.

Gaiyathiri sent a message which read: “She’s worse than a hungry ghost, eat eat eat eat.” She also said: “Instead of going out of your room, she should have jumped down the kitchen window. Once and for all case closed.”

Ms Isabella responded: “Exactly, should have just jumped down and died.” She also said that “she is just worse than a dog”.

When asked in court who some of the messages were referring to, Ms Isabella said she could not remember. However, Mr Kishore said they referred to Ms Piang Ngaih Don.

Mr Kishore also told the court that when the maid went to his home two weeks before she died, he noticed that she had lost weight. He said he asked his mother about it, and she replied that the maid may have had some medical condition.

Ms Piang Ngaih Don weighed 39kg when she started working for Chelvam’s family and was 24kg when she died.

When Ms Isabella was asked by Chelvam’s lawyer if she had noticed that Ms Piang Ngaih Don was malnourished, Ms Isabella said she was not able to see as she wore oversized clothes and a mask.

On the day Ms Piang Ngaih Don died, Ms Isabella said that she was informed of the death by Prema. She went to the flat in Bishan carrying a handbag. She saw several police officers and Ms Piang Ngaih Don’s body on the sofa.

At first, she said she was confused about where she left the handbag. She later said she was sure she had put it down in the master bedroom. She also said that she did not speak with Chelvam other than talking in the kitchen about food for his two children.

As she left the flat with Chelvam’s son, Prema told her that she had kept something in her handbag and told her to do something with it.

Mr Kishore, who later found out that the item was a CCTV recorder, called a friend to collect it and keep it safe. He told the court that he did that as he wanted to get “the trouble” away from him at that point of time.

Police officers were eventually able to retrieve the recorder, which contained footage of Ms Piang Ngaih Don’s abuse.

Gaiyathiri and Prema are expected to testify as prosecution witnesses during Chelvam’s trial.

Gaiyathiri is currently serving a 30-year jail sentence – the longest for a maid abuse case in Singapore. Prema, who took part in the abuse, was handed 17 years in prison.