‘Treat like a dog’: Hong Kong father denies murdering girl, 3, by shaking her

A three-year-old Hong Kong girl’s death in 2020 could not have been caused by her falling out of bed as her father claimed, a murder trial heard on Monday, with prosecutors arguing her fatal injuries were consistent with violent shaking while alleging he had earlier said she should be “treated like a dog”.

Lau Kai-ping, 42, has denied murdering his daughter, although he earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which the prosecution did not accept.

The accused, previously jailed for attacking the girl’s mother with corrosive liquid, had earlier faced a child abuse charge and appeared in the Magistrates’ Courts before the Department of Justice upgraded it to murder and brought the case to the High Court.

Prosecutors said on Monday that WhatsApp records between the parents would show Lau felt the girl should be “treated like a dog”, to be beaten and punished until she obeyed.

They told Madam Justice Anna Lai Yuen-kee and a jury that on the morning of July 18, 2020, Lau was alone with his daughter at their Sham Shui Po flat, after the girl’s mother went out to buy breakfast.

The court heard the mother had observed her daughter and Lau talking in bed, with the child appearing healthy and in good spirits before she left.

But shortly afterwards the mother received a video call from Lau in which he said the girl had fallen from bed and appeared unresponsive. The mother told him to call emergency services.