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| Legion was arrested in one of the flats at Green Code estate in Fanling (googlemaps photo) |
By Vir B. Lumicao
The Filipina domestic helper in Sheung Shui who was detained
by police for more than a day for allegedly hurting her four-year-old ward, is
preparing to file a case for unjust termination against her employer.
Michelle M. Legion, 29, who is out on $500 police bail, has vehemently
denied laying a hand on the boy.
“Kahit kailan ay hindi ko sinaktan ang alaga ko, mahal ko
iyon kahit madalas siyang nagta-tantrums,” Legion told The SUN.
She claimed it
was the boy’s father who would slap the kid whenever he acted up.
Police released Legion at midnight on Friday, Jun 1. Two
officers had picked her up at her employers’ home at Green Code estate on Ma Sik Road
After granting her bail, the police reportedly told her that
she will know in three weeks whether she will be formally charged in court.
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| Legion says she was held without any investigation being conducted at Sheung Shui police station |
Legion, who has sought shelter at the Filipino Workers’ Resource Center
An ATN officer said the fact that Legion was allowed to post
bail indicated the complaint filed by the employer against her needed further
investigation.
In her phone conversation with The SUN, Legion said that during
the 26 hours that she was held at the police station, she was put in a cell and
was told not to call her friends. But she did manage to make a few calls before
the officers took her phone away.
Legion said she told the police to review the CCTV footage
in the employers’ home as there allegedly were cameras everywhere in the house.
“How can anyone with common sense touch the child when every
corner of the flat was monitored by CCTV,” said the helper, who had been
employed by the family for two years and five months.
On Thursday afternoon, the boy was reportedly crying when his
father asked Legion to take him to his kindergarten class. At 6:10 pm, the male
employer reportedly told her to return home and prepare dinner.
In the evening, when the female employer arrived from work,
she called the maid for a talk and accused her of beating up the boy and showed
the reddish imprints of a hand and a fresh scratch on the child’s back. The maid denied she was responsible for the
injuries.
The employer then called the police, who took the maid to
the Sheung Shui police station.
Legion said the two officers who arrested her could not
investigate her because they could not speak English and there was no Filipino
interpreter available.
In the end, they told her she would be released if she
posted $2,000 bail but she said she had no money because her wallet was left in
the employers’ flat. Then eventually lowered the bail to $500 and allowed her
to phone a friend to bail her out.
Legion said before she left for her vacation in December,
she was accused by her female employer of stealing her mother-in-law’s money. They
asked her to return the money, but she said how could she return something that
she did not take?
She said she learned later on that her employers were
already in the process of hiring someone to replace her.
Police told Legion to return to the Sheung Shui Station on
Jun 22 to find out if she would be charged.
