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One of the most disturbing child abuse cases in Hong Kong history concluded on Tuesday. Illustration: Adolfo Arranz

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.

Jurors in 5-year-old’s murder trial told not to let emotions affect decision

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.  

The 29-year-old man’s mother is now taking care of his surviving child, a boy aged 11. The 30-year-old woman’s daughter, also 11, is in foster care. 

The five-year-old girl died of an infection she was unable to fight off because her immune system was compromised by months of abuse. Photo: Warton Li

On Tuesday, the man and his wife were found guilty of murder, on top of child cruelty charges in relation to the girl and her brother. The woman’s mother was also found guilty of two counts of neglect. None of them can be named because of a gag order issued by Mr Justice Albert Wong Sung-hau to protect the children.

Hong Kong child’s death not murder, ‘result of punishment, gross negligence’: defence

Prosecutors said the girl’s death followed 150 days of “hell”, when she was repeatedly beaten, tortured, starved and deprived of medical care even as her wounds festered and ulcers formed on her body. Her brother was also severely abused. 

Leading paediatrician Dr Kwan Yat-wah said the girl succumbed to a serious salmonella infection because her immune system was compromised by toxic stress resulting from the months of abuse.

Describing it as probably the worst case of child abuse he has seen in 30 years of practice, he told reporters after testifying in court: “I hope this case can deliver a message to parents on how they should care for their children.”

The court was shown drawings done by the victim in school before she died. Photo: Handout

Divorce and then, a whirlwind romance

The man was still in his late teens when he married his high school sweetheart and they had two children. The girl, their younger child, was born in 2012. 

The couple divorced in 2015, with the father getting custody of the two children.

Several witnesses described the little girl as lively, cheerful, charming and opinionated. Her biological mother said she was well-behaved, and described the father as a man who “loved his family very much”.

He found love again in the spring of 2016, after putting the photo of himself and his daughter on WeChat.

Couple charged with murdering daughter told police ‘she hurt herself’

His future wife, a divorcee with a daughter, initiated conversation, and the pair connected through their similarities as young single parents from broken families. Within nine months, she moved in with his family and they married.

Defence counsel Alex Ng, for the father, said the man “did not set out as a devil going to hell” and there were happy days in the family.

He portrayed the tragedy as the result of “an unfortunate conflict of characters” between in-laws and between the stepmother and the girl. He described the relationship between the woman and the child as one between “an inept mum and a wayward daughter”. 

Another drawing by the five-year-old girl. Photo: Handout

It was a difficult period of transition for the family, at a time when the couple was struggling with finances. In addition, they had the wrong attitude about disciplining the children, Ng said.

Court hears father accused of killing his daughter threw her at ceiling 18 times

The court heard the woman had trouble fitting in with her husband’s family, disagreed with her mother-in-law on childcare decisions, and clashed with her two brothers-in-law who lived in the same household.

When these problems persisted, the couple took their three children and moved in with the woman’s mother in a newly renovated one-bedroom flat on August 10, 2017.

There was limited contact between the man and his family in the months that followed. 

Hong Kong jury hears five-year-old was ‘very scared’, dizzy before death

‘Hit by papa, hit by mama’ 

That marked the start of five months of hell for the man’s children. 

His two children, looked after mainly by his mother all along, were now in their stepmother’s care. 

The woman quit her part-time sales job in September 2017, while the father became the breadwinner, juggling multiple jobs unloading containers, waiting tables and moving offices.

Hong Kong woman was ‘loving and caring’ step-grandmother, court hears in neglect case

Both children were repeatedly abused by their father and stepmother, the court heard. 

There were milder punishments, such as being forced to repeatedly write sentences, standing by the wall and being made to stay in a sitting position on an invisible chair. The children were also punched, beaten with a rattan cane and a plastic slipper. 

Once, the boy was questioned in school when he was found limping with bruises on his thighs and told his teacher that his father had hit him. His father and stepmother were furious when they found out, and hit him for telling. On another occasion, his father poked his chest with a pair of scissors.

Hong Kong girl allegedly murdered by parents ‘found with 133 injuries’

The children were made to sleep in a sleeping bag, tied up on some occasions. They were repeatedly denied food for up to four days and made to eat “like beggars”, said Derek Lai Kim-wah, senior assistant director of public prosecutions.

The woman’s daughter was spared the mistreatment, except when she was hit on the palm once. But the girl witnessed all that happened in the home. 

Asked about her step-siblings, she told investigators: “Hit by papa and hit by mama.”

The abuse only came to light when the girl died. She had 133 recent injuries, scabbed wounds, ulcers and scars on her body. 

Her brother survived, but he was found with 128 injuries. 

Girl, 5, would not have died of septicaemia if she had not been abused, court hears

‘I’m close to killing her’

In court, the woman admitted she bore “the most responsibility” for the girl’s death, but claimed she had treated her stepchildren as her own and “only intended to teach them” when she began caning them.

The man said he had tried to ease his wife’s stress and restrain her when he found her methods were “too much”. But he also subjected his son and daughter to extreme and excessive punishment, especially after “losing his cool” from around November.

The woman’s defence counsel, Caesar Lo, said her decision to become a full-time housewife was “the beginning of a series of wrong decisions”.

She came under tremendous stress and felt trapped in a cycle of endless chores and childcare frustrations, and was diagnosed after arrest with severe depression that affected her judgment.

Hong Kong mum accused of murdering girl ‘suffered from severe depression’

“Being a stepmother is always tough,” Lo said. “She didn’t know how to be a good stepmother.”

To prevent others from finding out the abuse, the children were frequently kept home from school and treated with antiseptic solutions and ointments. 

The father testified that he believed his wife could handle the injuries because she had attended a nursing course, but she clarified that it was for elderly care.

Prolonged abuse sapped girl’s immune system, doctor tells murder trial

She said the children’s wounds became a source of stress for her.

The prosecutor said the woman’s 56-year-old mother who shared the flat was aware of what was going on and could have intervened when the children were punished, starved and in need of medical attention. 

But she was not always home, as she worked full-time as an accounting clerk to pay the mortgage and claimed to have troubles of her own. She said she suffered from depression after a traffic accident in 2012 and was affected by her own mother’s death from lung cancer on November 19, 2017.

Nursery school teacher breaks down while testifying in 5-year-old’s murder trial

Investigators found a catalogue of the couple’s frustrations in more than 15,000 text messages exchanged between them and sent by the stepmother to her only friend between August 2017 and January the following year.

The woman complained endlessly, mainly about her stepdaughter, and sent her husband numerous text messages while he was at work. She said the girl ignored and contradicted her, and she called the child foul names. 

Barely a week after they moved, the woman texted her husband on August 17 complaining the five-year-old could not wring a wet towel dry. 

She told her husband: “I’m close to killing her.”

“Do it,” he replied. “She’s testing your limits.”

Lawyers question credibility of boy who testified against parents in child cruelty case

In messages to her friend, the woman said she dreaded being at home alone with the girl. 

She told her friend it was better when the two older children returned from school.

“Once it’s just the two of us, I really want to die,” she told her friend on December 11. “Sometimes when I see the injuries, I can’t bear it. But once [the child] starts talking, making noises, nagging, I feel so much hate.” 

The friend did not testify at the trial. 

Accused felt ‘so much hate’ for girl but was mentally sound, murder trial hears

The man’s family did not know what was happening to the children. One day in November of that year, the school contacted the man’s mother about the boy, and she went with her two sons to find out more, but the school would not tell them where the family was living.

She went to police the same day, and with their help, her son finally called her back, saying the kids were okay. 

A child’s nightmarish last days 

The court heard that the girl’s last days were spent in abject misery. 

Lo, the woman’s lawyer, said the child could have been infected on December 21 when she lost control of her bowels. She became abnormally tired and walked unsteadily in the days that followed, but the stepmother saw these as signs of misbehaviour.

Murder trial hears of efforts to end parental ‘beating and scolding’ of boy

The absence of timely medical treatment almost certainly sealed the child’s fate. Top microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung said she was infected by Salmonella enteritidis, through contaminated food or water, and Staphylococcus aureus through her wounds, at a time when her immunity was already weakened by the chronic abuse.

Paediatric expert Dr Kwan said it was evident from the change in the girl’s thymus, a vital organ responsible for producing white blood cells that fight salmonella. It had shrunk to its smallest size – indicating the lowest function – as a result of her body producing the hormone cortisol in response to stress. 

He said the child would have been in very poor condition about five days before her death, when the bacteria invaded her bloodstream and triggered a systemic inflammatory response.

Dad accused of murder denies he meant to cause girl, 5, grievous bodily harm

The girl’s brother and stepsister said that on the night before she died, the girl was forced by their parents to practise walking because she kept falling to the floor. 

They also watched the father throw the girl into the air over and over, with her head hitting the ceiling repeatedly. The couple also swung her around horizontally.

The children told investigators they thought these were scare tactics to make the girl behave. 

Both the stepsister and stepmother recalled the girl’s last words: “I’m very scared.”

Woman accused of murdering stepdaughter claims ‘the most responsibility’ for her death

 At the trial, the couple insisted that they were just “playing games” that night. The father claimed he had asked the girl to walk in order to treat the swelling in her legs.

The prosecutor dismissed these claims, along with other depictions of the couple as loving and caring.

“They provided terror, they provided pain, a lot of pain,” Lai said in closing the case. “If they were loving and caring, we would not be in this courtroom. [The girl] would not have died.”

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