Hong Kong mother arrested on suspicion of killing her three-month-old son by 'shaking him violently'
A three-month-old boy who died in hospital after being found unconscious in his Cheung Chau home on Tuesday may have been killed by being shaken violently, a police source said yesterday.
His 30-year-old mother was in police custody after being arrested yesterday on suspicion of killing her son. Police also arrested her 31-year-old sister for allegedly misleading officers.
Last night, the two sisters were still being held for questioning and had not been charged.
The baby's mother called police at about 5.45pm on Tuesday, saying the infant - her only child - had collapsed inside their home in Tai San Back Street, Cheung Chau.
The baby, Matthew Lee Man-hin, was taken unconscious to St John Hospital, where he was certified dead at 6.54pm.
One police source said initial examinations showed bleeding in the child's brain.
Police first classified the case as person collapsed. They reclassified it as murder yesterday after investigations indicated the mother was suspected of shaking the baby before he collapsed.
"Initial investigations revealed the baby was slapped and thrown into a baby cot before being shaken violently," a police source said.
The woman is unemployed. Her husband moved out of the flat about a month ago.
Separately, a foreign domestic helper was arrested yesterday after she delivered a premature baby, which later died, in the toilet of the Quarry Bay flat where she worked.
Police first classified the case as infanticide and later reclassified it as "request police investigation". She was then released unconditionally.
The Indonesian woman had stomach pains and delivered the baby at about 1am. Police said she may have only been four months pregnant.
The case came to light after the maid told her employer.
