HONG KONG — A Hong Kong mother was sentenced Wednesday to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter and child cruelty in the death of her five-year-old son, who was found to have been systematically starved and beaten over a prolonged period.
The 37-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed, received 20 years for manslaughter and six years and four months for cruelty to a child, with two years of the latter sentence to run consecutively, bringing the total term to 22 years.
An autopsy revealed the boy weighed just 9.7 kilograms at the time of his death in 2022 — more than four kilograms less than his recorded weight at age two. Pathologists found that all of his organs and muscles had atrophied, consistent with prolonged starvation. A total of 129 injury marks were visible on his body, the result of repeated confinement and caning by his mother.
High Court Judge Susana D’Almada Remedios described the case as “horrid, devastating, heart breaking and tragic,” saying the child had endured extreme cruelty over an extended period. She characterized the mother’s conduct as “a protracted, cold-blooded annihilation carried out with the patience of a torturer,” adding that her actions had “exposed a savage nature utterly devoid of the empathy inherent to motherhood.”
The judge noted that social workers had conducted multiple home visits but last saw the boy three months before his death. She said she found it “incomprehensible” that officials had failed to detect the child’s abnormal weight and height, suggesting his life might have been saved had the warning signs been recognized.
The defendant’s three other children have been placed in foster care.
