“Maid Found Guilty of Murdering Employer’s Mother-in-Law “

SINGAPORE – A domestic worker who stabbed her employer’s mother-in-law 26 times in 2018 was found guilty of murder on Thursday. The incident was triggered after the 70-year-old woman threatened to send her back to Myanmar.

Zin Mar Nwe, a Myanmar national now aged 22, came to Singapore in January 2018. Although instructed by her agent to declare her age as 23, investigations revealed she was only 17 at the time.

Zin began working for her third employer, identified as Mr. S, on May 10, 2018. On May 26, Mr. S’s mother arrived in Singapore from India for a one-month stay, joining the family of four.

On June 25, 2018, while alone in the flat with the victim, Zin retrieved a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the woman multiple times. After the attack, she took some cash and went to her agency to ask for her passport but fled when she overheard staff planning to call her employer. She roamed around for five hours before returning to the agency, where she was ultimately arrested.

Due to a gag order, the victim and her family members cannot be identified, as one witness in the trial is below 18 years old.

Initially, Zin denied stabbing the victim, instead blaming two men. However, she later confessed to the crime, explaining that she had been physically abused by the victim. The stabbing was triggered by the woman’s threat to send Zin back to the agent, which would lead to her returning home in debt.

In her fifth police statement, recorded on July 1, 2018, Zin detailed numerous instances of abuse she suffered at the hands of the victim, including physical strikes for misunderstandings and being burned by flames from a stove incident.

Justice Andre Maniam, during the trial, acknowledged the victim’s abusive behavior towards Zin. He stated, “I do not believe that the accused would have stabbed the deceased if there were just an isolated statement by the deceased… but for the threat to send the accused back to the agent, however, the accused would not have stabbed the deceased.”

Zin’s lawyer, Mr. Christopher Bridges, argued for a conviction of culpable homicide, citing a psychiatric assessment indicating that Zin was suffering from an adjustment disorder at the time of the incident. However, Justice Maniam rejected this defense, preferring the assessment that Zin was not mentally impaired during the stabbing.

The judge noted that Zin was conscious of her actions, recalling specific details of the incident when describing it to the police.

The case has been adjourned for sentencing, with Zin Mar Nwe facing the possibility of life imprisonment or the death penalty. The prosecution, however, stated that they would not seek the death sentence.