Mainland mom held for abusing son during search for father

Staff reporters

A 38-year-old mainland mother was arrested for abusing her four-year-old son yesterday while they were looking for the father in Hong Kong.

It is understood that the mother, surnamed Zhan, is a native of the Heilongjiang province.

She lost contact with her Hong Kong husband in 2019 and had to take her newborn son back to Heilongjiang.

After the border between Hong Kong and mainland fully reopened in February this year, Zhan came to Hong Kong with her son, now four years old, to look for her husband.

Her son was injured in a traffic accident in September and has been hospitalized in Tuen Mun Hospital since then.

Around 4am yesterday, the boy refused to sleep and Zhan slapped him on the head and kicked his legs.

A hospital security guard witnessing the incident called the police.

Police confirmed they received a report at 5.12am from a staff member of Tuen Mun Hospital that a four-year-old boy was suspected to have been assaulted by someone with their hands and feet.

Officers arrived at the scene and arrested Zhan on suspicion of child abuse. The boy sustained head injuries but was conscious.

Last month, a 45-year-old man was arrested for common assault and ill-treatment or neglect of a young person after he beat his wife and son.

The 42-year-old wife of the man said they were having an argument on November 20 when her husband hit her with his hands. Their 14-year-old son was also beaten when he tried to stop the man.

The man was later arrested while the wife and son, with injuries to their forehead, were sent to the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital for treatment.

Another 28-year-old mother was arrested for child abuse in October after throwing her 16-month-old son to the ground from a height of half a meter in an attempt to get immediate treatment at Tuen Mun Hospital.

The mother was suspected of being dissatisfied with the long wait and argued with a nurse. The son, conscious, was hospitalized in a stable condition.

The government has pledged to step up efforts to protect children from being abused, including a bill on a mandatory reporting mechanism that was gazetted in June - which required teachers, social workers, and medics, to report suspected abuse.

The bill will come into effect by the end of 2024, after which those failing to do so face up to three months in jail and HK$50,000 in fine.

Non-government organization Against Child Abuse revealed last month that it received a total of 1,232 reports and consultation calls from their hotline this year, an increase of 11 percent from the previous year.

Some 15 percent, or 187 of them, were suspected child abuse cases.

Of the 1,232 cases, over 900 of them, or about 75 percent, were reported by family members, with the majority being mothers.