A CHILD snatcher broke down in tears yesterday after she was put on probation for 12 months and ordered to seek help for depression. Deputy Judge Eccleton was told Lusia Bong had been badly shaken by her courtroom ordeal and had suffered enough. He said he accepted the 36-year-old Indonesian immigrant was a decent person and that giving her help was better than jailing her. Bong was found guilty of stealing four-year-old Chan Ho-ming after finding him lost outside a McDonald's restaurant in Tsuen Wan on February 21 last year. She handed the boy to police on February 23 following a massive search. The court heard she told police she thought God had answered her prayers for a child when she found Ho-ming. Bong, who denied theft, admitted keeping him for two days but maintained she had never intended to deprive his parents of him permanently. As she left the courtroom with her husband yesterday she wept uncontrollably and said she was relieved it was over. ''I have learned a great lesson. I will keep well away if I find any other lost children,'' she said. Sentencing her, Deputy Judge Eccleton said: ''I accept the defendant is a decent person who meant no harm to any person. ''I consider she could benefit from counselling in adjusting to this case and life in Hong Kong.'' David Tolliday-Wright, defending, told the court Bong had suffered under the strain of the case. ''She would not have kept the boy if she had known she would have to suffer such a heavy legal burden,'' he said. He claimed Bong acted out of kindness and decency because she thought the child might be abandoned. ''She is very sorry about it. She had no bad intentions towards the child or his family.'' He said she did not understand how to report the child lost because of the language barrier. ''In Indonesia if you report a matter to police you may be asked to pay them some money,'' he said. ''People try to find the parents of a lost child themselves or just leave the child alone.'' He said Bong had a low IQ and was not bright enough to find solutions to problems. Psychiatric and psychological reports showed she was not mentally ill, but had become depressed since the incident. Friends and relatives had told social workers she was good-natured, caring and nice to children, Mr Tolliday-Wright said. The judge ordered Bong to undergo any psychiatric or psychological treatment as deemed necessary by the probation officer.
