A woman has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and child abuse following the death of her five-year-old son, who a court heard was suffering from severe malnutrition and had cuts and bruises all over his body.
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The 37-year-old woman identified as “LST” was presented to the Supreme Court on Monday.
She was arrested in September 2022 after calling the police saying her son was dead. When officers arrived at their shared flat in Sham Shui Po, they found an unconscious boy – referred to as ‘Z’ in court – lying in bed.
The court heard Z was believed by a doctor to have not eaten for two to three months before his death, based on his calorie deficit. An autopsy report found his organs had atrophied, suggesting he had been starved for a long period of time, local media reported. reported.
The five-year-old was about one meter tall and weighed just 9.7 kilograms, less than half the average weight for a child of that age.
The cause of his death was believed to be severe malnutrition.
The boy was also found with 129 injuries to his body, including bruises and marks that appeared to have been caused by a sharp object a day or two before his death.
Mother of four children
According to details revealed in court, the defendant was born in mainland China and graduated from school after Form Four, the equivalent of Grade 10. She had a history of substance abuse and was convicted of two drug-related offenses in 2018.
The defendant was a mother of four children. Her youngest child was born while she was detained after her arrest and was sent to Vietnam by his father to be cared for by the family.
Her other three children had all been taken by the Department of Social Welfare at different times after she was deemed unfit to care for them.
Judge Susana D’Almada Remedios asked why the defendant was able to regain custody of them in 2020 and 2021. The defendant’s lawyer, David Boyton, said authorities gave her back custody of the children after she stopped abusing drugs.
Remedios also questioned why the social worker who conducted the home visits did not detect any abnormalities in the boy.
The court heard that the defendant’s friend, a woman surnamed Lau, who visited him often, had noticed that the defendant was partial to her other two children X and Y, and that she had previously told him she did not like Z.
When Z refused to sleep at night, Lau would tie her arms and legs and also beat her, according to the friend.
The defendant admitted that he had hit Z with a stick and a clothes hanger on his hand and behind, but denied hitting him on the head.
Absence in the garden
The police also conducted a video interview with X, the eldest child of the defendant. X said her mother would tie Z to the bed and not let her leave it.
Z only left the room a few times a week and had to eat and urinate there. X said her mother stopped her from playing with her.
She also told police that her mother did not allow Z to attend Zoom classes and that she lied to teachers about Z being sick.
The court heard that Z was registered for kindergarten by the Department of Social Welfare in September 2020. During that academic year, he only attended school for 38 days. The next academic year, he went to school for only 36 days.
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Teachers last saw him at school in January 2022, after which kindergarten began online classes due to the pandemic. When private lessons resumed in May, he did not return to school.
The defendant’s case has been adjourned to July 24 for sentencing. Under Hong Kong law, manslaughter is punishable by life imprisonment.
