Hong Kong couple jailed for torturing Indonesian helper fail in appeal bid

A couple who were jailed for torturing their Indonesian domestic helper with bicycle chains and hot irons over two years lost their appeals yesterday against their convictions and sentencing.

The High Court ruling means Tai Chi-wai and Catherine Au Yuk-shan, both in their early 40s, will serve the rest of their prison terms - three years and three months, and five years and six months, respectively.

When the sentences were handed down in September, the trial judge denounced their "cruel" and "vicious" abuse of Kartika Puspitasari, though he found unbelievable the helper's claim that she was tied to a chair for five days without food and water while her employers and their three children went on holiday.

Deputy District Court judge So Wai-tak did not err when handing down his verdict, Mr Justice Wally Yeung Chun-kuen, Madam Justice Maria Yuen Ka-ning and Mr Justice Derek Pang Wai-cheong concluded in rejecting the couple's appeal applications yesterday. Nor was the sentencing too heavy, Yeung said.

Tai was convicted of two counts of wounding for beating Kartika with a bicycle chain and his fists.