Five months of ‘hell’: Hong Kong child murder case began with a romance, ended in a nightmare
- ‘I’m close to killing her,’ stepmother texted her husband just two years after they combined families. ‘Do it,’ he replied. ‘She’s testing your limits.’
- As abuse mounted in months ahead of five-year-old’s death, the father’s family had no idea of the girl and her brother’s whereabouts; school refused to let them know where they were living
One of the most disturbing child abuse cases in Hong Kong history concluded on Tuesday with a jury finding a father and step-mother guilty of murdering their five-year-old daughter in January 2018. The girl’s step-grandmother, who failed to intervene, was convicted of child cruelty. In this first instalment of a two-part feature, the Post looks at how the couple met and how their family life quickly spiraled into months of devastating violence and torture inflicted on two small children, one of whom would not survive the ordeal.
He was a divorced man in his 20s with two young children. She was divorced too, with a child of her own.
She was drawn to him after spotting his profile photo on the “People Nearby” function of WeChat, the messaging and social media application. It showed him kissing his daughter.
She initiated a conversation. The two single parents connected and, within months, were married.
Then it all fell apart tragically over the next two years, ending with the death of the man’s five-year-old daughter on January 6, 2018. The little girl died of septicaemia – blood poisoning – and was found with multiple injuries covering her body, including festering wounds.
In one of the most horrifying cases of child abuse in Hong Kong history, the girl’s father and stepmother landed in the dock in the High Court, accused of murder.