Minister defends decisions leading up to girl’s death hours after mother’s suicide
Mother and daughter fell from same flat hours apart after reported argument over studies, raising concerns over level of mental support
Hong Kong’s welfare chief has defended a “professional” call by doctors and social workers to return a 12-year-old girl to the flat where her mother had just jumped to her death, hours before the child also killed herself.
A registered clinical psychologist said the girl should have been moved to a relative’s home immediately, instead of going back to the flat where her mother’s suicide took place.
Sources said that the woman, a 48-year-old government social worker with no record of mental illness, had argued with her daughter about “education problems” at 7.45am on Wednesday at their 19th-floor home in Taikoo Shing.
The woman returned to her bedroom and jumped to her death at around 9am.
The South China Morning Post learned the girl had suddenly heard a shout, only to discover her mother was not in the bedroom. She found her mother lying on the podium on the building’s second floor and called police.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
One source said the girl was later accompanied to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital by family members and was recommended to see a doctor for her emotional well-being.