A mainland Chinese woman, aged 21 and now six months pregnant, yesterday admitted in court that she abandoned her four-day-old baby in a public toilet last year.
The young woman, who was 20 years old at the time, gave birth to a baby boy at Tuen Mun Hospital on June 30, 2014, a few months after her family settled in Hong Kong, reports Apple Daily.
She was discharged from hospital on July 4, and two hours later abandoned the four-day-old baby in a toilet at the Shenzhen Bay Port before proceeding to cross the border into mainland China.
That evening, two cleaning ladies found the baby, his umbilical cord still attached.
The subsequent police investigation revealed that five of the 127 babies born in the previous two weeks at Tuen Mun Hospital did not receive birth certificates and, by process of elimination, officers thus managed to track down one of the woman’s relatives.
The baby is now in good health and in the care of the Social Welfare Department.
The mother returned to Hong Kong in May this year, and was taken into custody.
She admitted to her crime at the Tuen Mun Magistrates’ Courts yesterday, telling the judge that she abandoned the baby due to financial concerns and because she was afraid her parents would find out. She also claimed that she tried to get into contact with the baby’s father to no avail.
The defense told the court that the woman is a middle school drop-out, and that she “doesn’t know a lot of things”.
She is currently six months pregnant with the child of another man, who she says she plans on marrying.
The case has been adjourned to Sep. 25, when the sentence will be handed down.
Photo: Gabi Menashe via Flickr
