China

Hong Kong mother jailed after confessing to pouring scalding hot water on her children


A 37-year-old mother has been jailed ahead of sentencing after she confessed in court to scalding her children with hot water three times in as many days at a Hong Kong public housing estate last year.

On one occasion, the woman spilled a cup of almost boiling hot water on the face of her seven-year-old son to punish him for eating slowly during dinner, the District Court heard on Wednesday (April 14).

In an escalated incident two days later, the mother, during a row with her husband on the phone, poured a whole cup of hot water on the head of her 10-year-old daughter and live-streamed the assault to her husband.

After terminating the call, the mother went on to burn her son’s back using the same method. The cruelty only stopped after police rushed to the woman’s flat in Sha Tin in response to an emergency call by one of her neighbours.

Subsequent medical examinations found the boy had sustained partial thickness burn on his lower back as well as superficial burn on his head. The girl was also found with redness on her scalp. They were hospitalised for two weeks, and eight days, respectively. 

The mother, whose name was withheld by the prosecution to protect the identity of the children, pleaded guilty before Judge Katherine Lo Kit-yee to one count each of common assault, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and attempt to cause grievous bodily harm.

She will be sentenced on April 28 pending an array of assessment reports, and faces up to seven years in prison.

The first assault took place on the evening of February 10 last year, when the mother asked her husband to hit the boy, X, for eating slowly, failing which she would splash hot water on the child instead. The father then hit his son with a toy golf club.

Unsatisfied, the mother went to prepare a cup of water in the kitchen, despite her husband pleading for forgiveness. The boy tried to resist by pushing the cup away, but the mother eventually spilled the hot liquid onto the child’s forehead and cheek.

On Feb 12, during a heated exchange with her husband on the phone over financial matters, the mother again went to the kitchen in search of hot water to be used against her children. X and his sister, Y, locked themselves in the boy’s bedroom upon hearing the sound of pouring water.

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But the mother broke into the bedroom and captured herself on camera pouring the water on her daughter, who partially protected herself by covering her head with a pillow. Some of the boiling liquid also spilled onto the boy’s shoulder.

The defendant then got another cup of hot water, chased her son around the flat before splashing the water on her boy’s back, causing him to scream in pain.

Prosecutors said that what police witnessed when they finally entered the flat was heartbreaking.

“X and Y were found inside the flat and scalds were seen on X’s back and Y’s head,” said acting senior public prosecutor Angel Yuen Wai-yee. “X and Y were incoherent and kept shivering and crying that they were in pain.”

Yuen said the children were now taken care of by their great-aunt.

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.



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