A Malaysian man has been sentenced to six years in prison in Australia after being convicted of enslaving and repeatedly assaulting an Indonesian woman in his Melbourne home.
Chong Chee Kit, 47, was sentenced by Melbourne County Court Judge Michael Cahill after a jury found him guilty of forcing the woman into domestic servitude and subjecting her to physical and psychological abuse.
“You treated her as a slave, that is, you used her like property you owned,” Cahill said, describing Chong’s conduct as callous and cruel.
The court heard that Chong physically abused the woman over minor mistakes, including kicking her in the face and smashing her head against a wall.
He also restricted her access to food and medical treatment, controlled her movements and prevented her from getting adequate sleep.
A jury in May found Chong guilty of keeping the woman, who was in her 60s, in slavery between February and October 2022.
Chong will be eligible for parole in 2030 and is expected to be deported to Malaysia after completing his sentence.
His wife, Angie Liaw, was acquitted of charges that she had assisted or encouraged Chong in keeping the woman in slavery. The couple had been charged together in 2023.
The court heard that Chong first met the woman at a church in Malaysia in 2015, with the pair later developing what was described as a “mother-son” relationship.
She moved to Australia in 2017 to live with Chong and Liaw. However, the couple later returned to Malaysia without informing her, leaving her without accommodation for four years.
In 2021, they told her they had returned to Melbourne and offered her a job for one month.
The woman moved into their home in early 2022 after Liaw gave birth to her second child, initially intending to stay for only a month.
The court also heard that Chong made the woman borrow money from relatives to cover rent and hospital expenses related to the birth.
She eventually escaped from the house in October 2022 and remained missing for several days before police found her and took her to hospital, where the circumstances surrounding her treatment came to light.
Slavery is a federal offence in Australia carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
The woman died of natural causes in 2024.
