Parents who burned son with lighter, hit him with hammer, and made him kneel overnight on bottle caps for stealing US$510 from them spared jail
- Mother and father given 12-months probation for abusing 11-year-old son in February
- Grandmother given conditional discharge for her part in punishing boy who took cash for game cards
Two Hong Kong parents who burned their 11-year-old son with a lighter, hit him with a hammer, and made him kneel on bottle caps overnight as punishment for stealing HK$4,000 (US$510) from them were spared jail on Tuesday.
Instead the pair were given 12-months probation by Acting Principal Magistrate Ada Yim Shun-yee at West Kowloon Magistrate Court, and warned they would be sent to prison if they reoffended in that time.
The child’s grandmother, who told the boy to kneel on the caps, was given a conditional discharge and ordered to be held on a HK$2,000 bond, on condition she does not commit any violent offences over the next year.
The three adults, who expressed remorse and who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, punished him at a public housing estate in Kwai Chung in February, after he admitted taking the money to buy game cards.
The 83-year-old grandmother told the child to kneel on two bottle caps, and to think about what he had done.
When the boy’s 51-year-old unemployed father discovered his son was not properly kneeling on the caps, he took a lighter and burned the 11-year-old on the leg.