Further investigation revealed that even the security guard in the family’s building had noticed that both children suddenly began wearing face masks every time they went out from October 2017.

Couple found guilty of murdering 5-year-old daughter in horrific child abuse case

The case was finally classified as serious physical and psychological abuse and child neglect at a multidisciplinary conference held the following January 26, after the parents were remanded for trial on murder charges.

News of the tragedy sparked public fury, directed at the parents, but also at the children’s nursery and school, as many believed the girl’s death could have been prevented had authorities intervened earlier. The issue also reignited debate over how children could be better protected, and whether authorities, in the aftermath of the case, had done enough.

Critics said a mandatory reporting system that imposed a legal obligation on professionals to flag cases was long overdue, calling on authorities to show more commitment in pushing stakeholders for talks on the issue.

A government spokesman said the matter was “complex” and should be “thoroughly and extensively discussed by the community”.

On Tuesday, the girl’s 29-year-old biological father and 30-year-old stepmother were found guilty of murder, on top of child cruelty charges in relation to both children, but not their seven-year-old stepsister. The children’s 56-year-old step-grandmother was also found guilty of child cruelty.

None of the individuals, or the schools involved, can be identified due to a gag order from Mr Justice Albert Wong Sung-hau aimed at protecting the children.

The tragedy occurred within two years of the parents, both divorcees from broken families, meeting online. Both struggled with parenting, as they did not know how to teach or discipline the children. The stepmother complained of tremendous pressure from her first experience of managing such a large household while the father was busy making ends meet. 

‘His smile disappeared’

The High Court heard the abuse began on August 10, 2017, when the family moved away from the children’s paternal grandmother, who used to raise them, to live with their step-grandmother. In the same month, she was absent from school for 10 days, after taking just one day off in the whole of the previous academic year.

When she returned for K3 in September, teachers first noticed she was constantly asking for more food during breakfast, then arriving at school in tears, and suddenly sporting bruises on the exposed parts of her body. But they did not conduct further inspection of the child.

The stepmother initially admitted, on September 6, that corporal punishment was used at home when the girl was not able to take care of herself, offering the example of the child not being able to control her bladder when she was made to stand outside their flat as punishment.

But as more questions surfaced, the stepmother later claimed the girl would hurt herself. To remove the child from school, the woman told teachers they had to go on trips to mainland China, but immigration records showed otherwise. The girl was last seen in school on October 27, 2017, and formally removed from its enrolment list in the first week of December.

Meanwhile, at the boy’s primary school, his teacher first noticed his injuries on November 6, 2017, when he showed up with a swollen face and walked very slowly, with difficulty climbing stairs.

The school’s social worker also noticed his thighs were bruised, and was told by the stepmother that the father had asked the boy to sit on an invisible chair as punishment and hit him when he did it incorrectly. The staff member reminded the parent not to use corporal punishment.

The boy was punished again that very night. The next day, he returned to school with even more injuries, but the teacher found the child did not want to provide details of what had happened.

On November 9, the social worker consulted the Social Welfare Department but did not refer the child for follow-up after reporting he was not in immediate danger. She then warned both parents the case would be reported to police if the punishments continued.

No further injuries were sighted, but the teachers also noticed other changes in the boy.

“His smile disappeared,” his English teacher said.

Lessons learned?

In the aftermath of the shocking case, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Dr Law Chi-kwong pledged to improve the system for flagging child abuse.

In February 2018, the Education Bureau introduced a new arrangement for kindergartens to report pupils’ unexplained or doubtful extended absence – of seven consecutive days – from the following month, and also announced that schools should immediately report any suspected cases.

In the following academic year, the bureau provided a new funding mode for the implementation of a “one social worker per school” policy in all government and aided primary schools; while the Social Welfare Department launched a three-year pilot scheme to provide social work services to 150,000 children and their families in 725 eligible pre-primary institutions.

As of last August, more than 400 social workers were stationed in those institutions, and City University had been commissioned to evaluate the scheme. The department received 602 inquiries, reports or referrals of suspected abuse cases from schools in the 12 months from April 1, 2019 and logged another 495 in the nine months that followed.

The department also strengthened professional training of frontline personnel and completed its review of a procedural guide for handling child abuse cases, to provide clearer reference for early identification of at-risk children and guidance on the handling of different types of suspected maltreatment.

The revised edition, published last year, placed greater emphasis on child protection and a multidisciplinary cooperation approach towards handling cases. It also clarified the roles and responsibilities of professionals across sectors.

Senior Inspector Retam Tam Ching-shan, who handled the case of the five-year-old girl, said she had noticed an increase in police reports of suspected child abuse since the changes, as different stakeholders had gained a clearer understanding of their position and when they should act, allowing officers to intervene earlier, where social workers might experience difficulties.

Had these changes been in place in 2017, Tam believed the system could have saved the girl.

Five-year-old Hong Kong girl allegedly murdered by parents found with 133 injuries, including deep bruises

Reform: ‘We owe it to our children’

But critics have observed that more can be done, as the problem of child abuse in Hong Kong remains serious.

In the decade from 2008 to 2018, the number of reported cases jumped by 20 per cent, from 882 to 1,064.

The latest Child Protection Registry statistical report showed the department in 2019 recorded 1,006 new cases of child abuse and neglect, involving 1,025 abusers, most of them parents, relatives or family friends. In the same year, police handled 391 cases of physical child abuse, including murder, manslaughter, wounding, ill-treatment and neglect.

Last year, the department recorded 940 new cases while police handled 383.

Billy Wong Wai-yuk, executive secretary of the Hong Kong Committee on Children’s Rights, said it was time to introduce a child fatality inquiry system to investigate each case of unnatural death, or even serious abuse, to understand the causes and prevent a repeat, instead of leaving it to the criminal court to find out who was immediately responsible, especially when the problem was under-reported.

Wong also called for immediate public consultation on the mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse, and expressed concerns about whether schools had their own established mechanisms to deal with such cases.

The Post has reached out to the operator of the kindergarten attended by the girl. The boy’s school, where he is no longer a student, declined to comment.

In 2019, the Ombudsman unveiled a direct investigation report calling on the government to explore the feasibility of making it mandatory for professionals who have direct contact with children, such as teachers, social workers, doctors and nurses, to report suspected abuse.

By then, the Law Reform Commission had conducted a three-month consultation on the proposal, as well as the possibility of adding a new offence of “failure to protect a child or vulnerable person where the child’s or vulnerable person’s death or serious harm results from an unlawful act or neglect”. But it has yet to make any formal recommendations.

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

A survey published in 2018 by the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect showed 71 countries had already enacted laws to require mandatory reporting, including the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and Japan.

Polytechnic University’s Professor Edward Chan Ko-ling, who specialises in child maltreatment, has been calling for a mandatory reporting system and the establishment of a specialised domestic violence court since 2005, when he was the principal investigator in a government-commissioned review of social and legal measures.

The professor said this system was the biggest missing piece in the puzzle to close the gap in child protection and for effective enforcement of the department’s procedural guide, which he noted was clear, but still just a guide, a soft reference with no consequences for those who did not read or follow it.

The proposed system would have imposed a legal obligation on professionals to report suspected cases, he said, instead of just relying on their exercise of discretion, which also depended on training.

Chan added that the training and support given to frontline personnel was “far from enough”, as reflected by the “rather ridiculous” situation in the present case, where the schools had failed to act on the many cues indicative of child abuse.

But he believed the biggest hurdle to the implementation of the proposed system was the lack of commitment from the government, which he said ought to take the lead and push stakeholders for talks.

Barrister Azan Marwah, an expert in child law, similarly agreed that the government had not done enough and needed to urgently study the feasibility of setting up a system. He had included this item in a draft bill presented by then lawmaker Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung for debate in the Legislative Council in December 2019.

Woman accused of murdering her 5-year-old stepdaughter says she should bear ‘the most responsibility’ for her death

“We owe it to our children to devote more resources to their protection,” Marwah said. “I accept that this [system] is a difficult area and we spent a long time debating and discussing different approaches … Our proposal was based on unanimous consensus and had broad support from across the community.”

But the bill was blocked last year by Legco president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, who ruled that it had contravened the legislature’s Rules of Procedure because it would result in “significant changes to the existing work procedures” of the government.

At the time, Leung had consulted the government, which then revealed that the proposed mechanism would require the restructuring of the Social Welfare Department’s Family and Child Protective Services Units as well as the setting up of four additional investigation units, involving 78 new permanent posts, to cope with an expected increase in caseload. The estimated annual recurrent expenditure was put at HK$60 million.

A department spokesman said the question of whether such a mechanism should be established was “a complex issue”, requiring thorough examination, given its wide-ranging implications.

“It is imperative that the matter be thoroughly and extensively discussed by the community, respective professional disciplines, and a consensus in the community be formed on the way forward,” he said. “The government will keep in view closely the [commission’s] review and its final recommendations.”

The same bill also sought to outlaw corporal punishment, by removing the defence of “reasonable chastisement” in case of serious assault or battery to a child.

Former top prosecutor Grenville Cross, patron of Against Child Abuse, also called for an end to corporal punishment, as urged by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Chan agreed, pointing out that it was already banned in schools and prisons but still employed in many Hong Kong homes, where parents believe it forms part of their duty to teach and discipline.

“But that’s a myth and this myth has made it difficult to enforce laws involving child cruelty or common assault,” the professor said. “The predicament of our children is worse than that of prisoners. How ridiculous.”