Dubai: A maid, who attempted to kill her sponsor’s three children with boiling water and a cleaver while they slept, lost her appeal on Wednesday and will spend life in prison.

The 25-year-old Ethiopian maid, Y.S., confessed that she attacked the three Emirati children after they and their mother allegedly threatened to kill her.

The Dubai Appeal Court upheld the life sentence against Y.S., who had appealed for a reduced punishment.

The accused stood startled in the back of courtroom 20 when presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm read out the ruling.

“The accused will be deported following the completion of her punishment,” said presiding judge Bin Sarm on Wednesday.

The maid attempted suicide twice shortly after she tried to kill her sponsor’s three children, aged 15, 14 and 10, while they were sleeping in an act of revenge in April.

Prosecutors said Y.S. poured boiling water on the children’s faces and repeatedly stabbed them with a cleaver wanting to kill them in what prosecutors described as an act of revenge.

“My sponsor refused my request to cancel my visa and return home. I was scared because she and her children constantly threatened me,” the defendant told the appellate court.

The maid was charged with a triple murder attempt, double suicide attempt and theft.

The appellate court confirmed the decision that Y.S. should pay Dh21,000 in temporary compensation to the children’s mother [in her capacity as a claimant in civil rights].

The Emirati sponsor had gone out on a medical trip, according to records, for two days in April when Y.S. attacked her sleeping children and tried to kill them.

The defendant was cited admitting to prosecutors that she attacked the children while they were sleeping because she wanted revenge.

“When they hid in the washroom, I went to my sponsor’s bedroom. I took my passport and her money,” Y.S. was quoted as telling prosecutors.

Records said the children woke up in a state of shock and they were horrified when the defendant stabbed them repeatedly in different parts of their bodies.

The eldest sister said the incident happened the same day her mother had to go out on a short medical trip.

“We were sleeping… at 7am I felt some boiling water splashing on my face. I woke up shocked and saw the defendant. She held a boiler and a cleaver in her hands. She attacked us. We escaped and locked ourselves in the washroom, then called the police,” she claimed.

Records said police stormed into the flat within five minutes and freed the children before calling for an ambulance.

“There was blood all over the bedroom and sitting room. The children were bleeding and crying. We found Y.S. in the balcony… she had the cleaver in her hand and her passport and some cash in the other,” a police sergeant said.

Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.