A 26-year-old mother who admitted leaving her daughter alone and without food was placed on probation at Tuen Mun Magistracy on Friday - the second mother to be put on probation on charges of cruelty to children within a week.Deputy magistrate Douglas Kwok Kam-tao described the case as serious.
Kwok also said surviving on a piece of bread and making the girl feel abandoned has caused significant physical and psychological damage to the girl.
Tsui Ka-wai's daughter was sent to Tuen Mun Hospital on June 27 after feeling ill at school as she had eaten nothing but a piece of bread and some snacks from her classmates.
Tsui pleaded guilty to one count of ill treatment or neglect by those in charge of a child and was sentenced to a 24-month probation.
Kwok explained that imprisonment would not solve the problem, and the probation order was based on Tsui's clean record and the fact she had not previously mistreated her daughter.
He said Tsui needed to rethink about her daughter's importance. Tsui is required to attend a progress hearing on December 7 in Tuen Mun court.
In mitigation, Tsui's lawyer said his client had been working since Secondary Three and gave birth at the age of 17. Tsui, financially stressed by bringing up her daughter on her own, took up a bar waitress job in Mong Kok working from 5pm to 7am daily.
In explaining why the daughter was without food, the lawyer said Tsui was unaware that her daughter had an examination which meant there was only half a day of school, and because of this no lunch was provided.
Her lawyer also explained Tsui thought her live-in boyfriend's mother would take care of her daughter.
The Social Welfare Department has placed the little girl in foster care under a child protection order.
On June 25 the girl woke up alone and found no food at her Siu Lun Court home in Tuen Mun.
Though no lunch was provided because examinations were being held, the girl went to her tutorial after school and headed home without any food except some snacks from her classmates.
The same happened the next day except that she was given a piece of bread. The girl finally became ill on the third day at school and she was rushed to hospital. Social Welfare Department statistics showed 221 child abuse cases were reported in the first quarter and 10 percent, or 21 cases, were related to child negligence.
Tuen Mun district councillor Yim Tin-sang said while there are 30 child care centers in the district, the usage rate is very low, mainly because parents do not have enough information about services and some are unaware of the dangers of leaving a child alone. "They think it would be alright to leave the children at home alone for two to three hours or even a day," Yim said.
