Woman abused by vengeful family for months over sex act

A woman with mild intellectual disability, who was taken in by a family, became the target of their abuse after she performed sex acts on the husband of one of the women.

The torment unleashed on her included twisting her toes with pliers, knocking her teeth out with a hammer, hitting her head with a baseball bat, splashing boiling water on her, and making her eat food tainted with urine.

Yesterday, one of her abusers, Hany Aboubakr Abdelkarim Abdelfattah, a 33-year-old Egyptian, was jailed for three weeks after pleading guilty to slapping the woman.

Another similar charge was taken into consideration.

Hany's wife Haslinda Ismail, 34, her siblings Hasniza, 39, and Muhammad Iskandar, 31, and their mother Hasmah Sulong, 69, are facing similar charges.

Another brother, Muhammad Iski, 29, has been charged for providing false information to the authorities.

The victim, a school friend of another of Haslinda's brothers, got to know the family in 2008 and often visited them.

In early 2016, she ran away from home and the family let her sleep on a mat in their living room.

She was not charged rental but paid Hasmah $150 a month for doing her laundry.

The victim, now 30, worked at McDonald's and grew close to Hany, who worked at a Giant supermarket nearby. Sometime between May and June 2016, she performed sex acts on Hany at a staircase landing in a carpark.

When Haslinda, whom the victim called sister, found out about this a few days later, she and her family confronted her.

After scolding and slapping the victim, Haslinda also made her husband slap her.

The sisters and their mother continued abusing the victim for more than a year.

On Aug 31, 2017, Haslinda took the victim to her new flat to help with Hari Raya Haji preparations. The woman was forced to stand in the kitchen all night and was not allowed to sleep or use the toilet.

At 11am the next day, she urinated on the floor, angering Haslinda, who broke a broomstick into two while hitting her.

She continued hitting her with a hanger and a rolled-up wet towel before restraining her hands and legs with cable ties and making her stand in the kitchen in her soiled trousers.

When the other family members arrived at 3pm, they saw the victim tied up but did nothing.

Haslinda later urinated into a packet of hor fun and told the victim to eat it. She complied as she was starving. Haslinda also told Hany to slap the victim again.

NEAR-DEATH STATE

The abuse came to light after the victim was taken to hospital in a "near-death state" on Jan 16, 2018.

Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ang Feng Qian told the court the victim was found to have mild intellectual disability. She could not perform some psychological tests as she now has visual disability as a result of the abuse.

The prosecution described the family's actions as cruel and urged the court to jail Hany for three weeks.

For each count of voluntarily causing hurt, Hany could have been jailed for up to three years and/or fined up to $5,000.

The four siblings are expected to plead guilty to their charges on Nov 25. The pre-trial conference for Hasmah, who has pleaded not guilty, will be held on Nov 30.