Courtesy: The Standard
(May 12, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) A couple living on the dole but in absolute squalor yesterday pleaded guilty to allowing their three-month-old daughter to starve to death.
The High Court was told that while the mother received HK$5,200 in public assistance monthly, they spent a few hundred dollars on cigarettes and only around HK$400 on the girl, who weighed a mere 2.667 kilograms at her death, down from the 2.89 kg she weighed at birth and less than half the weight of a normal three-month-old child.
The father had told police that because of financial pressures he diluted the girl's milk powder.
Wong Chi-chung, 22, and his girlfriend Cheung Po-shan, 31, both unemployed and with Form Five education, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of their unnamed baby daughter - born on March 7, 2009 - who died on June 26.The couple also have a two-year-old son who lived with them. Cheung also gave birth to twin sons from a previous marriage in 2000. The twins do not stay with them.
Court of First Instance Judge Peter Line remanded the couple in custody and adjourned the case to May 28 to await various reports. Before adjourning the hearing, the judge asked the prosecuting counsel whether the girl's condition could have improved had the family been visited by a social worker. The counsel said any answer would be mere speculation.
The last visit by a social worker was on February 9, before the girl was born.
The court was told the couple had been cohabitating since 2006 and lived with their son and daughter in a flat in Grandeur Terrace, Tin Shui Wai.
Wong was unemployed and Cheung had been a Comprehensive Social Security Allowance recipient since 2001, receiving HK$5,200 a month. She did not apply for additional aid when the girl was born.
The couple was arrested on June 26 after the girl was sent to Tuen Mun Hospital and certified dead an hour later.
Police said they found the 500-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment filled with rubbish and used diapers and infested with cockroaches. There was also undrained sewage in the bathroom. "The teat of a milk bottle was covered with dirty residue ... the daughter's bed was filthy, had no linen, and the mattress was dirty and uncovered," according to the summary of facts.
According to the autopsy, the girl was emaciated with sunken eyeballs and prominent ribs and other bones. The standard body weight of a three-month-old baby girl is about 5.6 kg. A reduction of 35 to 50 percent of this weight is usually considered to be life threatening.
Most of the baby's internal organs except the brain were significantly reduced in weight but there was no physical injury. She had never been taken for vaccination or check-up since being discharged from hospital on March 11.
Under caution, Wong told police he was mainly responsible for looking after the girl since Cheung's health had deteriorated after giving birth. He said because of financial difficulties, he reduced the amount of milk powder used in the girl's feed from April to June, knowing it may affect her health. Wong said he found "nothing abnormal" with the girl except that she was very skinny.
He never took her to see the doctor as she didn't have a birth certificate. The couple had planned to do this after receiving the dole at the end of June. He said they spent HK$400 monthly for the girl's milk powder and "HK$200 to HK$300" on cigarettes, with the rest going on diapers and daily necessities.
Cheung claimed she did not take the girl for a medical check as they could not afford the HK$140 needed for a birth certificate.
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