Mother gets 15-year sentence in ‘grotesquely shocking case’ of child neglect

Delivering justice in one of the city’s most shocking child abuse cases, a judge today handed a more than 15-year prison term to a woman who deprived her young daughter of medical care and food, causing her to suffer irreversible brain damage, according to reports.

Passing the sentence today, High Court Justice Kevin Zervos called the treatment of Suki Ling Yung-lam, now aged 10, a “grotesquely shocking case,” according to RTHK.

He described the victim’s mother, 42-year-old Mandy Wong as a “cold-hearted person” whose “cruelty knew no bounds.”

Suki — referred to in Chinese-language media as “Lam Lam” — was 7-years-old when she was brought to a hospital by Wong in 2015, Apple Daily wrote.

She was suffering from cardiac arrest and was so pale and weak that a nurse initially thought she was dead.

During the 48-day trial, the court heard that doctors found new and old wounds and bruises on the child’s body, indicating abuse.

The girl — who had last attended kindergarten three months before arriving in hospital — had also suffered from severe malnutrition, likely from prolonged starvation.

Wong — who moved to Hong Kong in 2012 from the mainland and brought Suki with her two years later, according to the the SCMP — was sentenced to 15 years and three months in jail.

She was unanimously convicted by a jury earlier this month of one count of neglect and two counts of perverting the course of public justice for attempts to cover up the crime.

Her ex-husband Rocky Ling, 52, was also found guilty of the latter charge and was sentenced to four years and six months in jail.

Apple Daily reports that both defendants showed no emotion when the guilty verdict was read out.

The court heard that Wong had initially claimed to doctors that her daughter had passed out in the shower, according to RTHK.

Wong and Ling also lied to investigators probing the case, claiming that Suki had anorexia and was physical and mentally disabled, and that they were not the carers of the girl.

According to HK01, Suki, remains in a vegetative state and has to be fed through a tube. Doctors believe it unlikely that she will live beyond the next decade.