An elderly employer was acquitted on Apr 21 of a charge of raping his Filipino domestic helper two years ago, but was jailed for two and a half months after being found guilty of an indecent assault on her.
The split verdict in the case of 65-year-old Lee Man-biu, who owned a toy factory in the mainland, came after more than 10 hours of deliberation by a jury made up of two men and five men.
The jury returned unanimous verdicts on all three charges, one for rape and two for indecent assault, after a trial that was originally set to last for six days but stretched to eight and a half days.
Among those who testified were Lee and the victim, a 48-year-old mother of two, as well as two police witnesses.
Justice Esther Toh commended the jurors “for returning a difficult verdict” after spending the night in the courthouse to hammer out their verdicts.
The first indecent assault charge involved an incident in Mar 2014 when the maid was in the kitchen and Lee allegedly grabbed her breasts. She said she managed to film the assault but Lee grabbed her cell phone and deleted the video.
Lee was acquitted of that charge.
However, he was convicted of a second charge of indecent assault which took place in the morning of Oct 13, 2014. In this case, Lee was found to have grabbed the woman’s breasts while she was cleaning the living room, and dragged her to the bedroom.
Lee reportedly warned the victim that he would throw her out the window if she told anyone about the assault.
He repeated the warning when he allegedly raped her on the night of the same day. However, the charge of rape was dismissed by the jury.
Toh said the indecent assault was “over the top of the victim’s clothing”, so she accepted the argument of defense counsel Oliver Davies that it was not Lee’s most serious offence.
Lee reportedly warned the victim that he would throw her out the window if she told anyone about the assault. He repeated the warning when he allegedly raped her on the night of the same day. However, the charge of rape was dismissed by the jury.
In sentencing, Judge Toh said Lee, being the victim’s employer, had committed a breach of trust, which was an aggravating factor in the case.
“The victim was in a vulnerable position because she was financially dependent on the employer and far from her immediate family,” Toh said.
In mitigation, Davies said his client was a man of good character. He also reminded Toh that Lee had been held in police custody for about four weeks after his arrest on Oct 14, 2014.
Toh said the sentence for indecent assault was three months, but she cut this to two and a half months, given Lee’s clear record and his age.
According to the victim, she used to be scared every time Lee’s wife and daughter would go to China because the employer would assault her indecently “almost everyday”, and would hit her in the head if he was angry.
But during cross examination, the woman admitted Lee paid back $5,000 she had lent him. She also admitted keeping $60,000 in her room, money that she meant to take home. This led the defense lawyer to suggest to the Filipina that Lee did not rape the maid, but had “consensual sex” with her.
But the maid was adamant during cross-examination.
“No! I was raped. He was strong and my body ached afterwards and my back was painful because he bit me when I turned and tried to get up,” she said, crying.
The Filipina said she called 999 when she noticed the TV in the employer’s room was on but he was not there. Then she went downstairs and met the responding officers but told them to stay out of Lee’s sight.
When Davies asked why, she said: “Because I did not want him to kill himself. He told me if I tell the police, he would throw me out of the window and we both die.”
Members of Lee’s immediate family and other relatives attended the trial and were in the courtroom to listen to the verdict and give moral support to the defendant.
In contrast, only a representative of the Mission for Migrant Workers, which helped the victim pursue the case, was in court to assist her.
