It took a court official about 30 minutes to read the charges against Sazarina Madzin, 28, which included punching, slapping, pinching and kicking her employee between May 2004 and March this year, the Straits Times reported.

The newspaper said the 80 charges were believed to be the highest number of alleged offences against a maid ever filed against one person in the affluent city-state.

Sazarina also allegedly poked Wiwik Setyowati in the eye and hit her with a tomato sauce bottle, a plastic chopping board and a shoe. She is alleged to have threatened to kill the woman in June, the report said.

Sazarina, who was freed on bail, faces up to one-and-a-half years in jail and a fine of up to S$1000 (US$600), or both, for the assault charges, the report said.

She faces another up to seven years for the alleged death threat, the report said.

More than 140,000 women from poorer Asian countries are employed as maids in Singapore, where there have been several cases of employers being fined or jailed for abusing the women.

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