A man has been found guilty of keeping a vulnerable woman as a slave and assaulting her.
Chee Kit "Max" Chong, 47, faced a Melbourne County Court trial accused of intentionally possessing a slave and three counts of assault
He pleaded not guilty and a jury was empanelled in the trial which began at the end of March.
The jury was told the 61-year-old Malaysian woman, who cannot be legally identified, escaped from Chong's Melbourne home in October 2022.
She died in 2024, however her recorded interview with police in 2022 was played to the jury.
The woman was found with bruises and injuries to her leg and ears, which prosecutors said had been caused by assaults on her committed by Chong.
Prosecutors alleged Chong had kept her as a slave between January and October 2022, and controlled her access to the outside world as she was made to clean and care for his children unpaid.
Chong was accused of threatening and coercing the woman to provide domestic services, including massaging his feet, under threat of assault or hunger, prosecutors told the jury.
Prosecutor Shaun Ginsbourg SC said the woman was vulnerable as she was homeless for a period before moving in, and had entered Australia from Malaysia on a tourist visa but overstayed.
Chong's barrister Diana Price said her client never assaulted the woman, denied ever possessing a slave and asked jurors to question why the victim may have exaggerated her claims.
The jury retired to deliberate on their decision on May 15 after hearing six weeks of evidence, and returned with a guilty verdict to the slavery charge on Friday afternoon.
He was also found guilty of one count of assault, although he was acquitted of the two other counts.
Chong, who had been on bail during the trial, was remanded in custody and will return to the court for a pre-sentence hearing in June.
Chong's wife Angie Liaw, 32, was also accused of assisting her husband and she too faced trial.
But Judge Michael Cahill found her not guilty of the offence on May 7 ahead of the deliberations, telling the jury she should be acquitted as a matter of law.
