Jennicia Chow Yen Ping, 30, first appeared in court in October for causing grievous hurt to 19-year-old Kusmirah, the Straits Times reported yesterday.

The newspaper did not specify Kusmirah's nationality.

In court on Saturday, the 30-year-old clerk was accused of hitting the maid on the head with a chopper, poking her thighs with scissors, caning her on the back, using a knife on her face, throwing boiling water on her and forcing Kusmirah to touch a hot oven, the newspaper reported.

Chow is also charged with forcibly cutting Kusmirah's hair.

The offences were said to have occurred in October.

The prosecution also amended an earlier charge against Chow, saying she bit the maid on the breasts and nipples, causing "severe bodily pain" for 20 days.

Chow was sent to the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric assessment after the initial charges were filed.

The case comes days after another woman was jailed in Singapore for beating her maid.

The city-state employs about 140,000 foreign maids. About 80,000 come from the Philippines and the rest come from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.

Several cases of maid abuse have come before the Singapore courts, and tough jail sentences have been handed out to employers who are convicted of mistreating their domestic helpers.

In Chow's case, a pre-trial conference has been scheduled for Friday. The maximum penalty for causing grievous hurt is a 10.5-year jail term.

On Dec 21, AFP reported a Singapore woman who slapped and scratched her Filipino maid for buying the wrong brand of bread has been jailed for two months.

Chew Lee Cheng's imprisonment comes as the city-state expresses growing concern at the maltreatment of foreign maids.

Chew, 35, ordered her maid Beverly Dablo Go out of the house when she returned from a supermarket with the wrong brand of bread, the Straits Times report said.

The court was told that when Go stood on the doorway crying, Chew hauled her back inside where she proceeded to scratch the maid's neck and slap her around the face.

With the stiffer penalties imposed in 1998, anyone caught hurting their maids can be jailed for more than seven years, up from the previous five years.

Employers also face more than 10 years in jail if they knowingly cause grievous hurt, such as a fracture or disabling injury, to their maid.