Hong Kong father jailed for 8½ months on child abuse, drug charges after sisters aged 2 and 4 eat cannabis-infused sweets
- Magistrate says 26-year-old father’s offences were more serious than a mere failure to provide child’s basic needs
- He points to damage sweets had on defendant’s elder daughter, who was sent to intensive care after falling into a coma
A Hong Kong construction worker has been jailed for 8½ months on child neglect and drug charges for accidentally letting his two young daughters eat cannabis-infused sweets.
Magistrate Raymond Wong Kwok-fai told Tuen Mun Court on Monday that the 26-year-old father’s offences were more serious than failure to provide for a child’s basic needs.
He highlighted the damage the banned sweets had on the defendant’s elder daughter, who ended up in intensive care after she lapsed into a coma.
The father of two appeared disgruntled at the verdict and used an expletive as he called the sentence “insane” after the court proceedings ended.
He was found guilty earlier this month of two counts of child neglect and one of drug possession.
His defence that police had coerced him into making an incriminatory statement failed to convince the court.
The trial heard the two sisters, aged four and two, unknowingly ate the sweets stored in their father’s bedroom while the defendant was out with friends on June 25 last year.
The sisters were sent to hospital after the defendant’s younger brother saw the younger girl shiver when she ate a white, rectangular gummy from a pack of what was claimed to be “popping candies”.