Sentence fails to do justice
IT was shocking to read about the driver who beat 10-month baby Li Man-hin to death, last January (South China Morning Post, February 20). Yet this lowest of criminals got away with a reduced sentence of seven years, by pleading guilty to manslaughter.
It was with terror that one read of how this killer methodically beat the baby for many days, until '' . . . multiple bruisings and abraisons all over the baby's body . . . '', and finally a rubbing with alcohol over its bruised body finally ended this sad, little life.
How there could be any doubt in anyone's mind, that this was anything but premeditated, is well beyond my comprehension. Perhaps the driver's counsel could enlighten the public.
Mr Justice Wong's outcry when passing sentence may be very touching, as was his awareness of the growing level of child abuse here. Yet the leniency of the sentence does not seem to do much to stop it.
Last week, the whole of Liverpool was so traumatised by the murder of a two-year-old, that it kept a minute of silence at a football match. There won't be, it seems, even half-a-minute of silence for little Li Man-hin's killing.
P. JULIAN The Peak
