A Melbourne court has jailed Chee Kit "Max" Chong, 47, for six years after he kept a vulnerable woman as a slave in his home for nine months, with a judge condemning his conduct as "callous and cruel". The 61-year-old victim, who cannot be legally named, had treated Chong like a son and followed him to Australia from Malaysia, only for him to exploit her generosity and loyalty by forcing her into servitude and repeatedly assaulting her.

The pair met at a Malaysian church in 2015, and the woman gave Chong thousands of dollars before moving to Australia in 2017, later being left homeless when he relocated without telling her. After reconnecting in 2022, she moved into his Melbourne home, where he forced her to clean, massage his feet and stay awake overnight as his alarm clock, assaulting and depriving her of food and sleep when she disobeyed. She fled in October 2022 after disclosing horrific bruising to a cafe owner, and a jury convicted Chong in May of possessing a slave and assault; he was sentenced to six years with a four-year non-parole period and faces likely deportation, while his wife was acquitted. The victim died of natural causes in 2024 before seeing the trial's outcome.