Housemaid Pleads Guilty To Burying Foetus
By Rol Ezam

Bandar Seri Begawan - A Filipino housemaid pleaded guilty in the Bandar Magistrate's Court yesterday to burying a foetus she had been carrying for four months in the backyard of her employer's house.

The defendant, Rosario Dotdot Yano, 40, admitted to voluntarily causing herself, then with child to miscarry, which she did not do in good faith to save her own life, the court was told.

The defendant will appear in the Bandar Magistrate's Court on Saturday at l0am for sentencing. She is facing an imprisonment for a term, which may extend to 3 year's, or fine, or both.

The court heard that around September to October last year, the defendant realised she was pregnant when she had missed her period.

According to the defendant's statement, she had at that time, been engaged in a three-year relationship with her boyfriend, a member of the Gurkha Army.

The defendant told her boyfriend she had conceived. He suggested to her that she abort the pregnancy, as he did not want to have anything to do with it.

The defendant went to Limbang to look at the possibility of aborting the child there. The doctor informed her she had been pregnant for 15 weeks and three days.

The defendant was unable to proceed because she could not afford the cost of abortion in Limbang, the court was told.

She went back to Brunei and, according to her statement, consulted a friend in Kampong Kianggeh.

The defendant told her friend about her predicament and was told that there was an Indonesian female, who could help her abort her child.

The woman contacted the Indonesian who visited the defendant at her house, and brought her to the Indonesian's place at Kg Kianggeh.

There, the woman checked the defendant's abdomen and agreed to help her with the abortion.

The defendant was given 'Jamu' (traditional Indonesian concoction) to drink.

The defendant also paid the Indonesian woman $100 for her services. The next day after she met the Indonesian woman, the defendant returned to the latter's house and stayed overnight. There, the Indonesian massaged the defendant's abdomen to facilitate the abortion.

The next day, the defendant successfully aborted the foetus of four months while sitting on a pail containing water. She saw a small foetus in the pail and cleaned it up.

The court heard the defendant washed the foetus and placed it in her blouse, before folding it and putting it inside a small box containing ice.

On the same day, the defendant went back to her employer's house in Kampong Selayun, bringing the box containing the foetus. She buried the foetus near a mango tree in the garden of her employer's house.

According to the Prosecuting Officer, Christopher Ng, the defendant admitted to the police she had aborted her child in December 2004 when the police came to her employer's house following an anonymous tip-off from a member of the public.

The prosecutor said the area near the mango tree in the garden of the defendant's employer's house was excavated. An orange coloured blouse was found containing the remains of the foetus. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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