‘Blood streaming’ on face after alleged slave beatings
Emily Woods |
Blood streamed down a woman’s face after her alleged slave-keeper assaulted her for being a “bad worker”, a nurse has told a jury.
The 61-year-old Malaysian woman escaped from a Melbourne home in October 2022, with prosecutors alleging she had been working as a slave for a couple since January of that year.
Chee Kit “Max” Chong, 47, has been charged with intentionally possessing a slave, and three counts of assault, while his wife Angie Liaw, 32, has been charged with assisting him.
Both have pleaded not guilty and a trial began in Victoria’s County Court last week.
Prosecutors previously told the jury the woman, who died in 2024 and cannot be legally identified, was denied freedom, medical help and performed unpaid domestic work for the couple and their two children.
St Vincent’s Hospital nurse Eve Wintergreen was called as a witness on Thursday, as she had treated the woman on October 11, 2022, after she allegedly fled from the couple’s Point Cook home.
She had presented at emergency after she was found sleeping outside a Melbourne CBD police station and officers arranged for a taxi to take her to hospital, the jury was told.
Ms Wintergreen said the woman appeared scared, hungry and needed medical assistance for several injuries, including her left foot which she said had been “stomped” on.
“She explained that, multiple times, she was hit because she was a bad worker,” the nurse told the jury.
“She explained that there would be times after those incidents where she would have blood streaming down her face.”
The woman was responsible for providing massages to the male, alleged to be Chong, cooking and cleaning, but over time he started calling her lazy or a bad worker, Ms Wintergreen said.
“The male began hitting her in her head and pulling her hair, and she explained to me at times that he would even bash her head or hit her head into walls.
“The male in the family (was) demanding that she pay to repair the holes in the wall resulting from the incidents where her head was bashed into the walls.”
She said the woman was not allowed to eat with the family, but would be given their leftover rice, noodles and bread, although access to that was also restricted at times.
“She was told … you don’t do the work, you don’t get the pay, meaning her food would be reduced,” Ms Wintergreen said.
The nurse took notes and reported the matter to Australian Federal Police, who attended the hospital about 2.40pm that afternoon, spoke to the woman and took photos of her injuries.
AFP Detective Leading Senior Constable Tung Thanh Tran said he noticed the woman’s left ear was injured and she informed him it was “the result of her head being put through the wall”.
“She was quite reluctant to tell us,” he told the jury.
“She was very hesitant, in that she did not want the people she was living with to get in trouble.”
On October 17 in 2022, police recorded a video of the woman walking through a home she once shared with the couple, on Lyra Walk in Point Cook, which was shown to the jury.
A bruise was visible across her left eye and the woman clutched a walking stick as she slowly stepped through the home, pointing out where she used to sleep near the stairs.
She also pointed to sections of wall that had been patched up with fresh paint.
The trial continues on Friday.
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AAP