73-year-old woman gets jail for abusing family friend to near-death state

SINGAPORE — A 73-year-old woman who, together with her family, abused an intellectually disabled woman they treated like a slave has been sentenced to 17 years and 10 months' jail.

Hasmah Sulong had the most serious charges of her family, all of whom have been convicted and sentenced in relation to this case.

The horrific acts that she committed on the victim included knocking her teeth out with a hammer, digging a finger into her eye until it bled, splashing her with hot water, and chaining her to a toilet bowl.

As a result, the victim, now 33, suffered head injuries, burns, permanent blurred vision in her right eye, and the loss of 10 teeth.

On July 2, Hasmah pleaded guilty to five charges relating to the abuse.

The victim was a secondary school friend of one of Hasmah's sons, Muhammad Isafi Ismail, and grew close to his family over time.

After running away from home in 2016, the victim moved into the family's flat at Woodlands Drive.

Hasmah and her family saw that the victim was intellectually slow, and discussed that they would make her their servant. She was then made to perform household chores for the family without being paid.

Things took a turn for the worse sometime between May and June 2016, when Hasmah's daughter Haslinda Ismail confronted the victim for performing sexual acts on her husband.

The victim was then abused repeatedly by several members of the family for over a year, until she was finally taken to hospital in a near-death state in January 2018.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Chua said from June 2016 to sometime in 2017, Hasmah chained the victim to a baby cradle in the living room daily, from around 10pm until the next morning.

Later in 2017, Hasmah then chained the victim to the toilet bowl in bathroom for more than 10 days.

While the victim was staying with the family, Hasmah hit her with a baseball bat multiple times, causing her head to bleed and her ear to become deformed.

On another occasion, Hasmah instigated Haslinda to knock out the victim's teeth with a hammer, which she did.

Sometime between September and October 2017, when Haslinda got angry with the victim, Hasmah and Haslinda sat on both sides of the victim and, each armed with a pair of pliers, twisted the victim's toes.

The DPP said Haslinda twisted the victim's second left toe so forcefully that the victim felt her toe breaking.

To prevent the blood from her toe from smearing the floor, Haslinda and her sister Hasniza took turns to bandage the victim's injured second left toe with a sanitary pad. But the toe became infected and started oozing with pus, and subsequently became deformed.

In late 2017, Hasmah noticed that her grandson's eyes were red and assumed that the victim had caused the redness.

Telling the victim that she would take revenge for her grandson, Hasmah dug her finger forcefully into the victim's right eye, causing it to bleed.

Because of this, the victim suffered permanent privation of sight in her right eye, said the DPP.

By January 2018, the victim became very weak, was no longer able to walk and had wounds and sores covering her body.

That month, the victim defecated while chained to the toilet bowl in the kitchen bathroom. When Hasmah saw the victim's naked lower body was stained with faeces, she splashed hot water on her.

The victim lost consciousness and fell, but Hasmah continued to pour hot water on her as she lay on the floor.

Hasmah's and her family's offences came to light in January 2018 when the victim's condition turned dire and needed urgent medical attention. Hasniza called the police, and she was taken to hospital.

The DPP said the victim required around eight hours of resuscitation, and was hospitalised for over three months.

Seeking 17 to 19 years' jail for Hasmah, DPP Chua said: "Given her intellectual disability, the victim was unable to fully appreciate that she was being taken advantage of and take necessary steps to protect herself or extricate herself from her predicament. Instead, she quietly bore the abuses until she almost died."

Hasmah knew that the victim was intellectually slow, and hence callously exploited her naivety and inability to seek help as she egregiously abused her, added the DPP.

Defence lawyers Amarick Gill and S Ramanujen sought 15 years' jail for their client, noting Hasmah's plea of guilt, which has saved the time of the court and that of the 49 prosecution witnesses who were set to testify at the trial.

Gill said his client is remorseful, adding: "Hasmah apologises to the victim, both for what she has done, and also what her children have done.

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"Both Hasmah and the defence concede that the abuse inflicted on the victim was horrendous and it was fortuitous that the victim did not perish."

Justice Valerie Thean said the offences were horrific, noting that Hasmah had betrayed the victim's trust, forced her into servitude and left her with permanent consequences.

In meting out the sentence, she said: "I make clear that I have taken into account that (Hasmah) is 73 years and seven months of age in making these orders. If not for her age, I would have made more offences run consecutively and the total sentence would have been more than 20 years."

In 2020 and 2021, five members of Hasmah's family were sentenced for their roles in this case.

Haslinda, who urinated into a packet of hor fun and forced the victim to eat the soiled food, was sentenced to 8½ years' jail.

Hasniza, who chained the victim up to a metal plate fixed to a wall and hit her with a baseball bat, was sentenced to three years' jail and ordered to pay $1,000 in compensation to the victim.

Two of Hasmah's sons, Muhammad Iskandar Ismail and Muhammad Iski Ismail, were sentenced to jail terms of two months and four weeks, and eight months, respectively.

Iskandar had slapped, punched and tripped the victim, while Iski provided a false statement to the police and perverted the course of justice.

In 2020, Haslinda's husband Hany Aboubakr Abdelkarim Abdelfattah was sentenced to three weeks' jail for assaulting the victim.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.