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SCMP Reporter

A YOUNG mother who throttled her baby daughter to death because the child would not stop crying was yesterday convicted of infanticide.

  Chau Fung-chu, 28, killed 10-month-old Mei-ki in a fit of temper when the baby awoke screaming.

  But the mother, who accused her husband of killing their baby, was suffering from severe post-natal depression which had altered her mental state, the High Court heard.

  Chau, who sent Mei-ki to relatives in China after the birth, killed her daughter just two weeks after she returned to live with her parents at their home in Tuen Mun.

 In the days before Mei-ki's death her mother complained of hearing voices telling her to strangle her child.

 When doctors examined Mei-ki's body they discovered 30 injuries, many of them several days old, prosecutor Stephen Wong said.

 Following the jury's verdict Mr Justice Stuart-Moore said it was a ''very distressing and very unhappy case''.

 He told Chau: ''The tragic consequence of your mental state is that you killed your own child.

 ''The jury have convicted you on overwhelming evidence and the sooner you face up to what you've done the better it will be for you.

 ''Whatever you may think of your husband he did not deserve to be accused of killing his 10-month-old daughter.

 ''The killing was your act and you accused him principally to spare your mother's feelings.''  But Mr Justice Stuart-Moore told Chau, who sat in the dock with her head bowed, that he did not believe punishment was appropriate and was considering making an order for psychiatric treatment.

  Having seen Chau give evidence, the judge said he was particularly concerned whether there was something ''radically wrong'' with her besides the condition that led to Mei-ki's death.

   During the trial the jury heard how Mei-ki, the couple's first child, had fallen asleep on January 30 last year, after taking milk, but had awoken crying at about 9 pm.

 Chau picked her baby up to comfort her but felt ''helpless'' when Mei-ki screamed even louder.

 To stop her yelling Chau smothered the girl with a blanket. She then gripped her daughter's neck, pressing on her throat for up to three minutes.

 When Mei-ki stopped crying she covered her with a blanket and went to watch television. But when she checked on her daughter an hour later the child had stopped breathing.

 Just days later Chau tried to commit suicide by strangling herself with a pillow case after she was admitted to the Castle Peak Hospital.

  Testifying against his wife, Chan Kiu-wan, 29, a dessert shop worker, told how he had arrived home to find his wife weeping over their daughter's dead body.

 Mr Chan told the court his wife had previously complained of hearing voices.

 He said: ''She told me that an elderly woman told her to strangle the girl to death - if she did not, she would have to kill herself.''  In her evidence, Chau claimed Mr Chan had beaten their baby to death.

 After the verdict Chau's defence counsel Niall Stirling told the judge: ''This lady is more to be pitied than condemned.''  Mr Justice Stuart-Moore adjourned sentencing until May 3 for psychiatric and probation reports.

 He ordered Chau remain in a psychiatric hospital.

     until sentencing.



Mother guilty of killing baby