Chinese grandmother poisons neighbour’s young son over secret five-year grudge
Woman told her granddaughter to give drink to the eight-year-old boy after she laced it with rat poison
It was a plot for revenge five years in the making, a Chinese court heard.
Villager Liu Yuqin had harboured a grudge against her neighbour’s family since 2012, prosecutors told the court in the city of Huaian, in eastern Jiangsu province, late last month, Chinese news portal jcrb.com reported.
Five years ago, Liu’s husband, surnamed Xu, had been ordered by village officials to pay the neighbour’s family 2,000 yuan (US$294) compensation after he injured one of them in a dispute that turned violent, the report said.
The matter was settled after the compensation was paid, but Liu’s grudge against her neighbours remained.
The festering rage led Liu, 58, to poison the neighbour’s eight-year-old son in March, the court was told.
The boy died after drinking from a bottle laced with rat poison.
Liu had asked her granddaughter to hand the drink the boy after lacing the bottle with rat poison bottle on the morning of March 11, according to prosecutors.
The boy started feeling sick, and vomited when he returned home. He did not get better and died the same morning.
Soon after, the family’s dog who had licked some of the boy’s vomit from the floor also died.
Suspicions aroused, the family called the police.
Police then found residue of the rat poison on Liu’s fingers and later found that she had allegedly disposed of the substance she used in a river near their village, according to the report.
Police discovered Liu’s motive after further investigation, the report said.
It added that she would soon be put on public trial over the boy’s death.
