An Indonesian maid at the centre of a high-profile abuse case told a Malaysian court yesterday that she was repeatedly branded on the breasts with a hot iron by her employer.

"I was tortured because I did not iron the clothes properly," Nirmala Bonet said.

"I was branded with a hot iron on the back of my body, on the left and right, at least twice," she was quoted as telling court by Bernama .

"I was told to unbutton my shirt, where my employer proceeded to press the iron on my breasts. I cried and screamed," she said adding that she was ordered to clean off the remnants of her skin from the iron.

Worst case

Wealthy housewife, Yim Pek Ha, 37, has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of torturing Nirmala in the country's worst case of maid abuse.

Yim was charged in 2004 with four counts of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Nirmala, who is from from West Timor, with dangerous weapons such as an iron, hot water and a metal cup.

She faces a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine if found guilty.

Nirmala's plight was exposed after a security guard at the upscale appartment building where she worked saw her crying and noticed that she had bruises all over her swollen face and was bleeding from the head and mouth.

Pictures of the maid's battered face and scarred body after she was rescued by police were splashed across the front pages of major newspapers, provoking an outpouring of disgust and calls for a harsh sentence for her tormentor.

She was allegedly repeatedly beaten, burnt with an iron on her breasts and scalded with boiling water.

Some 100,000 Indonesian maids work in Malaysia. They often receive little pay and many are forced to work from dawn till dusk with little protection from labour laws.