A Filipino domestic helper has escaped jail after taking her newborn baby to a Hong Kong NGO and denying it was hers.
Mary Ann Pineda was handed a two-week sentence, suspended for one year, at Hong Kong’s Eastern Magistrates’ Court on Sept. 9.
The domestic worker admitted that she gave birth to the girl at her employer’s house in Baguio Villa, Pok Fu Lam, using her nursing training to cut the umbilical cord herself.
On Feb. 26, she took the child to Mother’s Choice, a NGO that helps unwed women and their children, saying her friend had given her the baby, which was wrapped in a t-shirt at the time.
When the police failed to locate the friend, however, the Filipina, who already has two children in the Philippines, admitted the baby was hers.
She confessed to giving birth to the child the day before, and said she did not tell her employer because she was scared of losing her job.
Police later found “bloodied belongings” in Pineda’s room.
“This is an unfortunate case born of fear and confusion. Her thoughts on that day were muddled. She’s extremely remorseful,” Pineda’s lawyer told the court, according to Hong Kong News.
Pineda has been terminated by her employer and plans to return to the Philippines once she has received a birth certificate for the child.
Photo: (illustration) Peasap via Flickr
