Maid who attacked children in Dubai to face attempted murder charges

The maid allegedly confessed to stabbing and pouring boiling water on the children because her sponsor had denied her a holiday and delayed payment of her wage.

DUBAI // A maid who allegedly stabbed and poured boiling water over the children of her employer will face charges of attempted murder, the Attorney General of Dubai said on Monday.

Chancellor Essam Eisa Al Humaidan also ordered the Public Prosecution to file charges of attempted theft and damaging private property.

Mr Al Humaidan claimed the maid, from Ethiopia, had confessed to the investigating team, led by Judge Younis Baloch, from Deira Prosecution Service.

He said they also listened to testimony from the children, who spoke despite, he said, suffering severe pain and trauma.

“They told the team the horrors they faced, how they woke up to the maid hitting them with a cleaver and splashing boiling water on them,” he said.

The alleged victims, girls aged 14 and 16 and a 12-year-old boy, locked themselves in a bathroom at their home in Al Warqa, where one of them called the police.

Police say the maid, who had worked for the family for 18 months, tried to commit suicide after the alleged attack.

She is alleged to have attacked the children after their parents asked her to postpone her trip home until they had finished school for the summer.

They are also said to have delayed paying her wages.

Police said that the maid told them she was not aware of her alleged actions until she had begun stabbing the elder girl, who was sleeping in the same room as her sister.

She then went to their brother’s bedroom and attacked him. Two of the children are thought to have been seriously injured.