A judge has slammed a mother of five whose infant son starved to death, saying the baby had been in a worse state than malnourished children in the developing world.
So Suk-yee, 32, pleaded guilty to one count of mistreating a child. She had fed him formula milk, but at a concentration of only 60 per cent of the usual level.
The three-month-old boy weighed only 3kg when he died, half the expected weight, and had put on just 160 grams since birth.
So's lawyer said she lived on HK$6,300 per month on welfare and did not have the money to take the boy to a doctor.
But Deputy Judge Adriana Tse said So did not seem to be underfed. Tse added So could have asked the Social Welfare Department for help, or put the baby up for adoption if she couldn't cope.
