The Taipei Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday charged a Taipei couple with abusing their domestic worker.
The husband, surnamed Lee (李), and his wife, surnamed Yang (楊), allegedly abused the Indonesian worker, nicknamed “A-siang,” for about seven months, prosecutors said.
The abuse occurred for an extended period because A-siang was reluctant to alert the authorities, as she had absconded from her previous job, they said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
The couple hired A-siang in April last year to work at residences they owned in Tianmu (天母) and Dazhi (大直).
They allegedly started beating her in December, after reportedly being dissatisfied with her work and attitude, the prosecutors said, adding that the alleged abuse continued until A-siang fled.
The alleged beatings were also reported on the Facebook group Baoliao Gongshe (爆料公社) in June, they said.
A medical examination found that A-siang had pierced eardrums, blurred vision and cataracts, eye damage, deformed lips, broken teeth and other injuries to her face and body caused by physical trauma.
A-siang said the couple poured hot water on her, scalded her skin with a garment steamer and blew hot air on her face with a hair dryer, and also kicked her in the groin and the upper thighs.
When she started working for the couple, they took her passport, personal documents, cellphone and some of her cash for “safekeeping,” she said.
They also installed surveillance cameras to monitor her movements and arbitrarily docked her pay, forcing her into debt, she said.
The couple also forced her to eat their pet dog’s feces, A-siang said.
They demanded that she perform better at work, saying that otherwise they would have gangsters beat her family, she said.
She also accused the couple of threatening to kill her by throwing her off the top of the Tianmu high-rise where the couple had an apartment.
Prosecutors said that an investigation found sufficient evidence of physical abuse.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS