40 days jail for married man who fell in love with his maid, then threatened her with a knife after she rejected him

SINGAPORE: A 37-year-old Singaporean man was sentenced to 40 days in jail on Monday (Jun 16) after he threatened his foreign domestic helper with a knife.

Muhammad Khairulnaim Rosli, who lived with his wife and two children, hired the helper in September 2023. Three months later, he developed feelings for the helper and admitted his crush to her. The helper, however, rejected him and blocked him on social media.

On New Year’s Day 2024, the man confessed the entire episode to his wife. His wife was shocked and filed for divorce. Blaming the helper for ruining his life, the man tried to take pictures of the helper’s mobile phone on Jan 12, 2024, to find out her husband’s mobile number.

The court heard that he planned to lie to the helper’s husband that she had a boyfriend from Pakistan. The helper, however, caught the man in the act and managed to retrieve her phone. When the helper confronted her employer, he demanded to know why she was angry with him and kicked the storeroom door three times, growing emotional.

That same evening, he called his wife and told her that the helper did not feed their children. In a rage later that night, he brandished a 16-cm-long kitchen knife and threatened to kill the helper, scaring her into running out of the flat as the employer’s wife arrived at home.

A passerby witnessed the incident and saw the helper crying outside the unit, and then called the police. The man was arrested by the police that night.

The prosecution sought a jail term of five and a half to seven weeks, but the judge chose to sentence him to 40 days in prison.