A woman in jail for keeping a woman as a domestic slave in a suburban Melbourne home has had more time added to her sentence for trying to persuade the victim not to give evidence in court.
A man who stabbed his wife to death at their home in Melbourne's eastern suburbs after an argument over their child's kindergarten has been handed a 24-year prison sentence.
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Life was difficult in southern India. The woman barely had an education, worked manual labour from the age of 12, and as a young woman raised four children by herself after her husband died.
So in 2007 when she agreed to live with and work with a Melbourne family, it was her chance to provide for those back home. Then in her 50s, the prospect of living in a comfortable home in the eastern suburbs was appealing.
Kandasamy (left) and Kumuthini Kannan outside court last month.
Credit:Nine News
But over the following eight years, life again became exceedingly hard. The woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – cooked, cleaned and cared for Kumuthini Kannan, her husband Kandasamy and their three children every day. Her passport was taken and she was instructed to have nothing to do with visitors to the Mount Waverley home.