Pregnant woman who killed her baby jailed for breaching probation

An eight-months pregnant nightclub hostess who killed a previous child by stuffing her head-down into a toilet bowl after giving birth was yesterday jailed for two years for breaching her probation.

Mrs Justice Verina Bokhary said a jail term of such duration was best for Chong Ching-yuet, 29, because she could make use of the prison's medical facilities when she gives birth.

Chong was put on two years' probation in November 2011 after she pleaded guilty to infanticide. But after she was found to have taken the drug ketamine, she stopped reporting to the probation officer in October last year. Her lawyer told the court that she turned to drugs because of the pressures of job hunting and her mother's mental illness.

Chong surrendered herself to police in February and has been remanded in custody since.

The judge called the infanticide offence "a tragedy".

The court heard that in September 2010, Chong, who had had three abortions, gave birth to a healthy baby girl at a Mong Kok guest house.

She put the baby upside down in the toilet bowl, stuffed a bedsheet into it and closed the lid so no one would hear the girl crying. A worker at the guest house made the grim discovery.