4 NĂM TÙ VỀ TỘI CƯỠNG BÁCH VÀ HÀNH HẠ MỘT NGƯỜI ĐÀN BÀ 60 TUỔI LÀM NO LỆ CHO GIA ĐÌNH./-Mt68
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Melbourne man Chee Kit Chong jailed for at least four
years for slavery offences.
Story by crime reporter Olivia Jenkins
04 Sept • 3 min read • Updated 1h ago
Chee Kit Chong was found guilty of intentionally possessing
a slave and assault. (ABC News)
A man who beat a woman he kept as a slave in Melbourne's
west will spend at least four years behind bars.
Chee Kit Chong, a 47-year-old Malaysian national, bashed and
starved the Indonesian woman aged in her 60s between February and October 2022,
while she lived with Chong and his family in their Point Cook home.
He was found guilty earlier this year of intentionally keeping a slave
and assault, while his wife Angie Liaw was acquitted.
Judge Michael Cahill sentenced Chong to a total of six
years' imprisonment for forcing the woman into domestic servitude and
assaulting her on at least one occasion, describing the abuse Chong inflicted
on her as "callous and cruel".
"You treated her as a slave," Judge Cahill told
the court this morning.
"That is, you used her like property you owned."
Slavery, a federal crime in Australia, carries a maximum
term of 25 years behind bars.
Appearing at the County Court hearing via video link from
Ravenhall Correctional Centre, Chong remained emotionless and looked directly
ahead as Judge Cahill told the court Chong denied the woman proper medical care
and food, controlled her movements and deprived her of sleep.
Judge Cahill told the court that Chong admonished the woman
over text message if she did not perform her work to his standards, and
"hit her for the smallest mistake".
Throughout the time the woman was kept in Chong's Point Cook
home, the court heard he smashed her head through a wall, kicked her in the
face.
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Chong was also initially charged with hitting her with a
vacuum cleaner shaft, but that charge was ultimately dropped.
Woman found by police with injuries
The court heard that on at least one occasion, Chong told
her she could either sleep on the stairs or in the garage.
Judge Cahill said Chong had told friends that he was paying
the woman up to $5,000 per month for her work, which was untrue.
The court heard the woman would request crackers and other
small food items from a local charity to eat because they were "easy to
hide" from Chong.
The woman left Chong's home in October that year and was
unaccounted-for for over several days.
Police then found her and transported her to hospital in a
taxi, where she arrived looking malnourished with a swollen ear and leg, a cut
on her foot and bruising near her eye.
In what Judge Cahill described as "chilling"
irony, the court heard Chong told his wife that she should not have let the
woman leave their home.
Chong's wife Angie Liaw was initially charged with helping
him keep the woman as a slave, but her charges were dropped during the six-week
trial earlier this year.
She did not attend Chong's sentencing hearing.
The couple met the victim in Malaysia in 2015 where they
became close, the court heard.
"From the time you met her, [the woman] was generous
and loyal to you … she treated you like a son," Judge Cahill said.
In the years before she lived with Chong and his family, the
woman had come to Australia, where she became homeless and worked as a street
vendor.
The woman had moved into the couple's home in early 2022 to
help around the house following the birth of Chong and Ms Liaw's second child.
The court heard Chong repeatedly badgered the woman for
large sums of money, which she borrowed from her relatives back in Indonesia
and from an op-shop she worked at, because he was struggling to pay rent and
hospital bills from the birth.
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The woman, who cannot be named because victims of slavery
crimes cannot be identified under law, died in 2024 of natural causes.
Chong will be eligible for parole in 2030 and will likely be
deported back to Malaysia after serving his sentence.
The Australian Federal Police, which investigated Chong,
said the outcome of the case showed the force's commitment to pursuing those
involved in human exploitation.
"Human trafficking and modern slavery offences strip
victims of their freedom, dignity and basic human rights. They lose their sense
of identity," said AFP Detective Superintendent Ray Imbriano.
"This offending involved the exploitation of a
vulnerable woman for personal gain.
"It serves as a reminder that these crimes can occur
within our own communities, often behind closed doors," he said.
