Maid accused of attacking sponsor’s children in Dubai unable to enter plea in court

The Ethiopian maid, accused of stabbing and pouring boiling water on her sponsor's children, was crying inconsolably. The court also failed to provide a translator.

DUBAI // The maid accused of butchering and burning her sponsor's three children failed to enter a plea in court on Wednesday because she was crying inconsolably.

The 25-year-old Ethiopian is on trial at Dubai Criminal Court for the attempted murder of the three children of her Emirati sponsor. She is also charged with the attempted theft of Dh640, with damaging her sponsor’s property and with attempting suicide.

In addition to her crying, the maid was also unable to enter a plea because the court had failed to organise a translator.

“I want to go home,” was all Y B could say to judges in Arabic.

Prosecutors told the court that, during their investigations, the maid claimed it was an act of revenge for being mistreated.

“I wanted to take revenge on her because she deprived me of food and from leaving the country to return to my home – and to kill the children who always threatened to kill me,” prosecutors quoted her as saying.

They added she planned the crime because her sponsor, L A, a 42-year-old teacher, often accused her of theft and informed the labour office that brought her to the UAE that she had been stealing.

“They told her that she could cancel my visa and send me back home, but she refused and claimed that my passport was lost,” said the maid.

According to records, at 7am of April 11, while the mother was out the country on a two-day trip for medical treatment, Y B, armed with a meat cleaver, a knife and a pot of boiling water, entered the bedroom where the children – girls A A, 15, and R A, 14, and boy K A, 10 – were sleeping.

She allegedly poured the boiling water over A A and, as the girl woke up terrified, struck her repeatedly with the meat cleaver and stabbed her with the knife before moving to the younger sister and the boy, pouring water on them too and stabbing them. The children, bleeding heavily from the face, neck and other parts of their bodies and burned badly, managed to run from the bedroom to the living room, where A A tried to call police from the landline but found that Y B had cut its cable.

Before the maid caught up with them, the children locked themselves in a bathroom and used a mobile phone to call police, prosecutors allege.

The 15-year-old said in her testimony that they screamed as loud as they could to try to attract the attention of anyone nearby.

“We were terrified that she would be able to get us and end our lives,” said A A.

The maid is then said to have went to the mother’s room to take the money and her passport, which was hidden in a drawer.

Emirati policeman A M A, 21, said that he received a report from the operations room at 7.45am and, in less than five minutes, he was there with his colleagues.

“We headed to Al Warqa 2 and stood at the door for a second but heard no sound,” he said. “We knocked but no one opened up so we got permission and broke down the door. When we saw no one in the flat, we were informed by the operations room, that the children had been hiding in the bathroom.”

He said the children were frightened to open the door, but did so when they knew it was police.

“They were bleeding from everywhere and badly burned. They had deep wounds, mainly in the face, neck and chest,” said A M A.

The children were rushed to Rashid Hospital and police said they found the maid sitting on the floor on the flat’s balcony with blood stains on her clothes and the weapons in her hands.

She is then alleged to have tried to slit her own throat before surrendering to police when they raised their guns.

The next hearing is on Sunday.