She had lost 15kg in a span of 10 months while working for her abusers.
THE GROUP CHAT
The prosecution showed extracts of messages from the family’s group chat.
Gaiyathiri sent a message, describing the victim: “She’s worse than a hungry ghost, eat eat eat eat.”
Mr Kishore’s then-wife, Ms Isabella, responded: “Over at Hougang, even though she mistake (sic), we still give her food. She is just worse than a dog.”
Other messages referring to the victim said: “For all the problems she gave us, I am sure she will answer for it”, and “She is a great liar, she has added more problems for herself now, let’s see how she can ask for food when she is transferred to another house”.
Gaiyathiri also sent a message to the groupchat saying: “That bitch will come to no good.”
In one instance, Gaiyathiri sent a text saying: “Instead of going out of your room, she should have jumped down the kitchen window. Once and for all case closed.”
Ms Isabella replied: “Exactly. Should have just jumped down and died. Bloody bitch. Thank God she was nearby. I hate to see her face now.”
Gaiyathiri replied: “Only God saved us.”
When Ms Isabella said the victim was “just worse than a dog” and “not even a dog” as dogs will “appreciate”, Gaiyathiri said she would give the victim dog food with rice.
“You tell her even a dog is grateful,” said Gaiyathiri.
“You see lah, I will make sure she suffers before she goes. Let her die there,” said Ms Isabella in one message.
ISABELLA’S TESTIMONY
When Ms Isabella, who is a nurse, was asked about the messages, she largely said she was not sure or could not remember the context or what they were about.
In July 2016, she said her ex-husband was serving his reservist at Ang Mo Kio Neighbourhood Police Centre.
Asked if she noticed anything about the victim’s appearance, since the victim would come over to her flat often, Ms Isabella said: “Mm. Did not really observe well.”
“Did Prema tell you Don has a tendency to eat a lot?” asked defence lawyer Pratap Kishan, referring to the name the family used for the maid.
“I can’t remember,” said Ms Isabella.
Asked what she discussed with Prema regarding the maid’s work, Ms Isabella said: “She will usually tell me to monitor her during her work in the house. Some things she does that is not clean. Just very basic communication about Don.”
She said she couldn’t recall if Prema told her that the victim tended to eat a lot.
Ms Isabella said there was one occasion when the victim climbed out of the window along the common corridor of her flat in Hougang and left.
“I was at work. At that point of time, I was working in SGH as a nurse. My ex-mother-in-law (Prema) gave me a call and told me to come back home immediately, because she said that Don actually jumped out from my corridor window and left home,” she said.
Ms Isabella said that when she rushed back, the maid had already been found. She was found at a coffee shop eating with another maid.
She said Prema told her that the victim liked to “steal food and eat”.
The defence showed Ms Isabella her message in the family group chat, where she said “she is like a dog”.
He asked if she could confirm that she was referring to the victim.
“I guess so,” answered Ms Isabella. “I don’t really remember all these messages.”
“As of 2016, you were a trained nurse,” said the defence lawyer. “You had many opportunities when Don was home to see her. As far as your impression is concerned, would you say that she was malnourished?”
“Um, I was not able to see it,” answered Ms Isabella. “Because she’s been wearing oversized shirts, oversized pants, so I’m not always looking at her, together with masks covered on her face.”
The victim wore multiple layers of masks on her face because Gaiyathiri found her unhygienic.
“Did you see Ms Don having proper meals while she was at Hougang?” asked the lawyer.
“Not sure … I … yeah, I’m not sure,” answered Ms Isabella.
She said she only remember one instance when she saw the victim being given just bread.
Ms Isabella also testified about how she went over to the Bishan flat on the day the victim was found dead.
She said she carried her handbag with her at all times until she placed it in a room to help the children pack. At the same time, Prema closed the door to change.
She said she only realised Prema had put something in her bag when she was leaving and Prema told her in Tamil: “I have put something in your bag. Do something with it.”
It turned out to be the closed-circuit television recorder, an essential piece of evidence as the cameras in the house captured footage of the abuse, including the blows leading up to the maid’s death.
The recorder was later passed to Mr Kishore, who passed it to a friend for safekeeping. The police retrieved it that same day after questioning the involved parties, and the footage was used to convict Gaiyathiri and Prema.
Prema is expected to take the stand tomorrow in the trial against Chelvam.