A Filipino woman who repeatedly slapped the eight-year-old girl she was looking after and rubbed cut chilli peppers on her face was sentenced to nine weeks’ imprisonment yesterday.
Ika Autria Reni, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of ill-treatment or neglect of a child in her charge in Kowloon City Court.
Reni was taken in by the family in 2012 when she had nowhere to stay in Hong Kong, Oriental Daily reports. The girl’s stepfather is also Filipino.
The 31-year-old began caring for the child in December 2014, when the girl’s mother moved out of the family’s Shek Kip Mei apartment after falling out with her husband.
On Jan. 20 last year, Reni allegedly slapped the child three times and rubbed a sliced chilli pepper on her face for refusing to take a shower and talking back to her, the court heard.
Later, when the girl rang her mother for their daily phonecall, Reni reportedly grabbed the telephone and ended the call. She was arrested three days later after the eight-year-old told her mother what had happened.
Under police caution, the 31-year-old said she had used “very little force” and that it was the girl’s mother “who asked her to smear chilli on her daughter’s face,” SCMP reports.
During sentencing, Deputy Magistrate Gary Chu said Reni’s actions were “very cruel” and warranted imprisonment as the court has to protect vulnerable children.
Chu handed Reni a sentence of five week’s imprisonment which was then extended by four weeks, as her offence was in breach of a probation order she had previously received for breaching the conditions of her stay.
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