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Hong Kong kindergarten teacher collapses in court while testifying in murder trial of 5-year-old girl
A Hong Kong kindergarten teacher broke down in court on Tuesday remembering her final days with a five-year-old schoolgirl who was allegedly murdered by her parents. The teacher described the deceased as a “little girl who liked to laugh a lot” and was eager to serve, willing to help others, and willing to answer questions, even when she did not know the answers. “She was like this all over K2 before she moved in,” the witness said of the girl, who belonged to the first class the woman had taught in kindergarten. Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the great stories that originated in Porcelain. The Superior Court previously heard that the girl’s family moved out of her paternal grandmother’s house to live with her grandmother stepmother on August 10, 2017, which, prosecutors say, marked the beginning of her abuse at the hands of her family. The girl’s 29-year-old father and 30-year-old stepmother have admitted to child cruelty inflicted on her and her eight-year-old brother over a period of 150 days from that date, but both have denied killing her. The 56-year-old grandmother has denied all four counts of cruelty. The prolonged abuse depleted the girl’s immune system, says a doctor in the murder trial Acting chief prosecutor Jackie Lai Jing-kei said the girl was absent from school for 10 days the month the family moved, after to take only one day off in the entire previous academic year. Her K2 teacher, whom the Post does not name due to a gag order meant to protect the children’s identities, was visibly distraught when asked to confirm this attendance record, replying quietly after a long pause: “I remember this. “Her response prompted Lai and Judge Albert Wong Sung-hau to ask her if she could continue with her testimony.” I would like to have a break, “she said, before breaking down in tears. septicemia had she not been abused, the court hears. It is undisputed that the girl’s teachers and principal found her crying and sporting different injuries on six occasions since early September 2017, when K3 began. For example, the September 5, the witness found the entire right thumb of the girl and the area of the surrounding palm red and swollen and that there were multiple blow marks, one of up to 8 cm, on the right forearm, back, right thigh and the buttocks. The court heard the teachers speak to the girl’s stepmother the next day and the father promised not to carry out corporal punishment again. A week later, the girl returned to the nursery with bruises on her head, rashes on the face and abrasion nes on the lips. There was also a loose tooth. Then, on September 25, the director noticed that her right face was swollen with a large patch of bruises, 10 cm by 10 cm, while the witness found that the area near the sole of her right foot was red and swollen. , without examining his whole body. When asked about those injuries, the stepmother said that the redness on the foot was accidentally caused by the father when he struck a rattan stick on the floor to scare the girl for not responding and made another promise not to use the foot anymore. corporal punishment. “I had doubts,” said the teacher about the explanation. Hong Kong girl allegedly killed by her parents ‘found with 133 injuries’ The girl was last seen at the school on October 27, 2017. The teacher noted that she did not seek care or have tantrums that day, and that her emotional state “It wasn’t particularly bad.” Lai asked, “Did you see her again?” “I haven’t seen her since then,” replied the teacher, her voice cracking. The girl was formally removed from school records in the first week of December 2017. She died of septicemia on January 6, 2018, and her autopsy revealed 133 lesions on her body. Prosecutors have said her parents indirectly but significantly contributed to her death because their prolonged abuse and neglect considerably weakened her immunity against the bacterial infection that ultimately killed her. On Tuesday, the court also heard from the girl’s K1 teacher, who also noted that she had changed since her family’s relocation. The Hong Kong jury heard that a five-year-old boy was ‘very scared’, dizzy before he died “Previously [she] she was very eager to raise her hand to tell us where she had been [over the weekend or holiday]”This teacher testified. “But after the move, he didn’t like to talk much.” The teacher also noticed a change in the boy’s appetite for breakfast at school starting in September 2017, noting that he constantly asked for more food when he used to eat just one bowl of noodles or oatmeal. “Sometimes he even asked for three bowls [of noodles], “she added. The witness said that the child was” a very happy child “who did not even cry when she first attended kindergarten and had adapted very quickly to school life, without any problems with self-care or personal hygiene. . “She was a very normal girl,” he continued. The Post has also withheld the second teacher’s name in light of the judge’s gag order. The same order also excludes the naming of the defendants and their families. The trial Jury Duty Continues Wednesday This article by Hong Kong kindergarten teacher breaks down in court while testifying in the murder trial of a 5-year-old girl first appeared on the South China Morning Post for the latest news from the South China Morning Post, please download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
