Singapore - An Indonesian maid was sentenced to nine years in prison for smothering a 70-year-old kidney patient to death after the woman tore up a picture of the young woman' brother, news reports said Tuesday. Tri Lestari, 24, pleaded guilty to pushing Choy Ah Moy onto a bed and holding a pillow to her face until she stopped breathing.
It was "the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back," The Straits Times quoted forensic psychiatrist Stephen Phang as saying on Monday.
Tri Lestari told him that Choy had beaten her with a walking stick, snatched food away that she was eating and called her a dog.
Choy tore up the picture of the maid's 12-year-old brother and tossed the pieces out of the window on August 19, 10 days after Tri Lestari was hired to care for her.
The maid wrote a letter to her employer about the abuse she suffered and apologized for what she had done, the report said. She tried to hang herself from a staircase railing but abandoned the attempt.
Mohammed Muzammil Mohamed, the maid's lawyer, said that his client had pleaded with Choy to return the picture of her brother.
"You can hit me, ... don't give me food, but don't touch my brother's photo," the maid said.
Choy "tore up the picture anyway, and Tri Lestari just lost it," the lawyer said.
