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The defendants pleaded guilty to one count of wilful assault, ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of child. Photo: Warton Li

Hong Kong couple plead for mercy over death of friend’s baby girl

  • Lawyers for housewife Or Ching-man, 36, and construction worker Shiu Kwok-wai, 33, urge court to temper justice with mercy
  • Friend’s 22-month-old child, Heiley Or, died of unexplained head injuries while in defendants’ care in June 2019

A Hong Kong couple who abused a friend’s baby daughter before her death have asked the court for mercy, asking for their childcare difficulties and a failure by authorities to intervene despite “red flags” in the girl’s home life to be taken into account.

Lawyers for housewife Or Ching-man, 36, and construction worker Shiu Kwok-wai, 33, on Tuesday pleaded for leniency at their mitigation hearing over their abuse of Heiley Or, who died of unexplained head injuries while in their care on June 20, 2019.

The High Court previously heard the girl was found with 70 bruises, abrasions and scars over her malnourished and underweight body, which weighed just 8kg at the time of her death aged 22 months.

Or Ching-man later admitted she had used a metal dog leash to tie up Heiley when she was left home alone, and hit her with rattan sticks to the point they broke when she was “naughty”.

Shiu similarly admitted to slapping the child on multiple occasions from January 2019, but claimed to have used only “moderate force” as he knew he would have killed her if he used all his strength.

Hong Kong couple admit abusing baby girl who died in their care

The pair pleaded guilty to one count of wilful assault, ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of child, an offence punishable by 10 years in prison.

In mitigation, defence counsel Trevor Beel said his client Or was acting on “misguided compassion” because she felt sorry that Heiley was to some extent left unattended by her own mother and she did not want the child to end up in foster care.

Beel revealed that Or had come from a broken family herself, with an abusive father who had physically assaulted her before leaving due to financial difficulties.

“Or is a woman who wished to care for and help Heiley,” he said. “However, due to a combination of factors, she took on far too much for her own physical and mental abilities.”

In June 2019, the court heard, Or was three months’ pregnant and raising three young daughters of her own, including a four-month-old baby, while helping her friend, Cheong Kei-ngan, 25, care for Heiley without receiving any pay on top of her government subsidy and Shiu’s income.

Beel said the stress from pregnancy and childcare had caused Or to lose control at times and do things she now regretted.

The counsel added that Or had “only one set of hands”, which was why she had on occasions left Heiley unattended for short periods.

In retrospect, he said, Or should have refused her friend’s request for help while Cheong should have accepted a suggestion from Tuen Mun Hospital to put Heiley into foster care.

Domestic worker takes Hong Kong employer to court over accusations of abuse

But he also argued the authorities should have done more for Heiley when her three siblings were all in foster care and she was missing her milestone check-ups.

“Red flags were there to be seen but weren’t acted upon,” Beel said. “If the authorities had realised that Heiley was at risk, she would have been put in foster care and these events wouldn’t have occurred.”

Shiu’s defence counsel Richard Wong Tat-wah urged the court to temper justice with mercy by imposing a shorter sentence.

Wong said Shiu was unable to control himself because he was under financial stress as the family’s sole breadwinner and that Heiley had “a lot of behaviour problems”, such as scratching and biting his daughters, fussy eating, and not walking properly or being toilet trained.

But the counsel said Shiu accepted that was “no excuse at all for what he had done to Heiley”, which had also split up his family and caused his children to suffer.

“I wish I could go back in time and avoid this tragedy,” Shiu wrote to the court. “I hope Heiley can forgive me.”

Or gave birth to her fourth daughter while in custody in December 2019. All four children are currently in foster care arranged by the Social Welfare Department.

Mr Justice Albert Wong Sung-hau will sentence the couple on November 17.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Couple plead for leniency over death of toddler
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