A Hong Kong court found the employer of a 23-year-old tortured maid guilty of physical abuse, ordering police to detain the accused before her sentencing.

Police arrested Law Wan-tung, 44, in January last year for severely abusing her former Indonesian house help, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who escaped her employer that same month.

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On Tuesday, Hong Kong Judge Amanda Woodcock ordered Law taken into police custody, after ruling that the accused mother-of-two had been found guilty of 18 of the 20 cases filed against her, including criminal intimidation and grievous bodily harm.

The only two charges Law was not found guilty of stemmed from her treatment of another maid.

The judge said she was sure Erwiana was telling the truth, when she testified that she was "tortured" by her employer. Prosecutors revealed during the six-week trial that Law used ordinary things such as a ruler, clothes hanger and a mop into "weapons" against house help.

Erwiana recalled clearly how she was habitually starved, humiliated, tortured and beaten by Law, with prosecutors stressing she was practically an "unpaid slave." For months, she scraped by with only rice and bread and rested a mere four hours a day. She told the court she was so severely beaten that she lost consciousness.

Images of the maid -- sickly thin and beaten black and blue - that came out when she was treated at a hospital in Indonesia drew widespread anger in Hong Kong and her home nation.

The Indonesian complainant said she was "very happy" after the court decision was announced. Her former employer bowed her head and appeared calm.

Law denied all the charges including criminal intimidation, failure to pay wages and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The former British colony is home to almost 300,000 domestic helpers mostly from southeast Asian neighbors - mainly the Philippines and Indonesia.

In 2013, human rights organization Amnesty International scored the "slavery-like" treatment of thousands of domestic helpers in Hong Kong and accused authorities of not doing enough to protect them.