Hong Kong dad gets 6 months’ jail for abandoning disabled son in Singapore

Marina Promenade, where the child was abandoned. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Marina Promenade, where the child was abandoned. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to abandoning his deaf-mute and mentally disabled son in Singapore three years ago.

Construction worker Chan Chai-wai pleaded to one count of abandonment of a child. His lawyer told the court that Chan believed his son — known only as “X” — who was 11 years old at the time, would be better cared for in the city-state.

In mitigation, the defense said Chan, who only has secondary one education, has a complicated background; his father killed himself in 2012 due to illness, and he had to support his mother who had a mental illness. He also had a younger brother who had a kidney disease, reported the Standard.

His now 14-year-old son, the child of his ex-wife, has an intellectual disability, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and was assessed as having the mental age of a toddler.

According to RTHK, the defense told the court that Chan loves his son, who was discriminated against and bullied by people in Hong Kong. On one occasion, X urinated involuntarily on a bus, and was criticized by the passengers and driver, the court heard.

Chan and his current wife have a daughter together, after deciding to have another child to look after X later.

In 2014, Chan complained to X’s school after discovering injuries on his son. When those complaints went unanswered, his lawyers said Chan was led to believe that Hong Kong did not provide adequate support for intellectually disabled children.

The court heard that a day after picking his son up from a special needs school in Aberdeen, Chan flew with his son to Singapore on July 21, 2014.

Police there posted a photo of “X” on Facebook on July 23 after they found him wandering by himself on Singapore’s Marina Promenade. Chan then tore up his son’s passport before leaving the city on that day, and was arrested two days later by Hong Kong police.

Sentencing Chan at Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Court yesterday, acting principal magistrate So Man-lung said he should hand down a deterrent sentence to warn the public.

The six-month sentence will set a precedent, as no such abandonment case has happened before, the Standard reported.

So said Hong Kong’s Social Welfare Department offers assistance for mentally disabled children, and that the defendant acted out of stupidity believing that Singapore’s welfare system could provide for him.

 

Text by Coconuts Hong Kong



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