Maid 'beaten by employers with wire and wood' settles case out of court

DUBAI // A Filipina maid who was assaulted by her employers with wire and wood because, they claimed, she had abused their young son, escaped from the home by jumping from the fifth floor window of the flat to another apartment on the same floor, a court was told.

The Egyptians FR, 37, an architect, and his wife, DN, were charged in the Court of Misdemeanours with assaulting RP, 28, and causing her several injuries.

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However, before the case could be heard an agreement was reached between the couple and the maid and the case was dismissed.

RP testified that the couple often assaulted her with an electrical wire and a piece of wood if she erred in her duties, but she was never able to report them to police or seek help because they locked her in the Al Barsha house. She said the beating involved in the charges was severe enough to send her to Rashid Hospital.

She also lodged a complaint of abuse at the Philippines Consulate, records show.

She testified that on the day of the incident named in the case, she overslept, for which she was beaten. So she decided to run away.

RP said she leapt from the fifth-floor window to an open window of a nearby apartment and sought the help of that home's occupants.

During prosecution investigations, FR and DN confessed to beating her, but said they only did so after DN allegedly discovered RP molesting her six-year-old son.

DN testified that she had asked RP to change her son's clothes on October 23, 2010, and when she walked into the room she saw her touching him inappropriately. She said she lost her temper and grabbed RP by the hair and beat her. Then she and her husband locked her inside the house and went to a police station to report the incident.

"They asked us for reports in order to register the complaint," DN said during prosecution investigations.

DN also testified that her son and daughter told her RP often scratched them with her nails. A doctor said the couple asked him to not question their son about the molestation allegations because it had affected him emotionally.

RP denied abusing either child.

An agreement was reached between the couple and RP so the case was dismissed.

salamir@thenational.ae