A Hong Kong couple has been jailed for up to three years over repeated abuse of their three-year-old boy, who was left with potentially permanent brain and eye damage after being slapped in the face, thrown from height and hit in the head with a metal ruler.
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The District Court heard on Friday the unemployed couple had also left the child naked and starving in the cold during a 10-day ordeal at a flat in Ngau Tau Kok’s Wang Kwong Building between late 2022 and early 2023.
The 23-year-old mother and her 26-year-old boyfriend, Wong Yat-ming, who is not the boy’s biological father, pleaded guilty to a joint count of ill-treatment or neglect of a child. Wong, a former clerk, also admitted to causing the toddler grievous bodily harm with intent.
The mother was jailed for 2½ years and her boyfriend was sentenced to three years behind bars.
The court heard the mother sent the boy to foster care six months after he was born in November 2019.
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The boy, who was diagnosed with speech disorder and delayed development, had spent his early years with different families before his mother obtained the approval of the Social Welfare Department for him to briefly stay with her during Christmas in 2022.