Dubai: A maid has lost her legal battle before Dubai’s highest court and will spend life in prison for trying to kill her sponsor’s three children with boiling water and a cleaver while they slept.

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

Records said the accused attempted suicide twice shortly after she tried to kill the children in an act of revenge. At the time, the children, aged 15, 14 and 10, were sleeping.

On Monday, the Dubai Cassation Court rejected Y.S.’s appeal for a reduced punishment and upheld the life sentence against her.

According to Monday’s ruling, that has become irrevocable, and the accused will be deported following the completion of her punishment.

Court records said Y.S. poured boiling water on the children’s faces and stabbed them with a cleaver wanting to kill them.

The maid argued in court that her Emirati sponsor had refused her request to cancel her visa and send her home.

“I was scared because she and her children constantly threatened me,” the accused contended in court.

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

According to the Cassation Court’s ruling, 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] was also upheld.

The sponsor had gone out of town 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 told 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. claimed.

Once the maid started stabbing the sleeping children with the cleaver, they woke up in a state of shock and they were horrified.

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

“At 7am I felt some boiling water splashing on my face while I was asleep. I woke up shocked and saw the defendant. She held a boiler and a cleaver in her hands. She attacked us. We jumped from the bed and locked ourselves inside the washroom… then we 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 testified.