A Malaysian high court today sentenced a Malaysian couple to 24 years each for maltreating and starving their Cambodian maid until she died.

Penang High Court Judge Zamani Abdul Rahim found hardware store owners Sow Chew-tong, 44 and his wife Chin Chui-ling, 42, guilty of culpable homicide for the death of Mey Sichan, 24, who died after prolonged starvation last year.

Zamani said evidence court showed the victim did not receive enough food and sustained injuries over time “which further aggravated her gastric ulcer that led to acute peritonitis,” causing her death.

The body of the 148cm-tall victim weighed only 26.1kg when it was recovered by police on April 1, 2012 in the storeroom of the shophouse owned by the couple in the town of Bukit Mertajam in the state of Penang, about 175 kilometres north of Kuala Lumpur.

Mey Sichan worked with the couple from September 2011.

- dpa