Care-home abuse case 'worse than yoga'

A 27-year-old employee of a children's care home plagued by allegations of widespread abuse has pleaded guilty to child abuse for pressing a one-year-old boy's legs toward his face.

Fung Hoi-lee is already serving a 50-week prison term for nine counts of child abuse.

She appeared in a district court yesterday to admit the abuse at the Children's Residential Home in Mong Kok in December 2021.

Judge Lily Wong Sze-lai said the degree of the bent was even more serious than doing yoga and the infant could have been injured by Fung's act.

She adjourned the case to December 15 for sentencing. Two counts of abuse involving another boy that Fung pleaded not guilty to were left on court file.

The court heard that the parents of the one-year-old were unable to care for him, so the Social Welfare Department referred him to the home after applying for a care and protection order.

On December 21, 2021, Fung, together with another child care worker Chong Ka-yi, grabbed and pressed the boy's hands and feet vigorously, bending his legs toward his head.

They conducted the offense twice, one lasting seven seconds and the other 30 over a five-minute spell, according to surveillance camera footage.

Fung was said to be remorseful, but her lawyer said there was no evidence of serious bodily harm, and he would not remember the incident.

But Wong said Fung's act could have broken the boy's bones as his legs were bent to a degree that was even more serious than doing yoga.

"As the bones of young children are relatively fragile, the court cannot ignore the risk of injury," Wong said.

With Fung having only three weeks left to go to serve out her 50-week imprisonment, her lawyer hoped the sentence could run concurrently with part of her current sentence.

Fung has pleaded guilty in a magistrate's court to nine counts of child abuse involving nine children aged between one and three years old, including hitting them on the head, kicking them out of beds and shaking them with force.

Fung became a registered childcare worker on September 5, 2017, soon after finishing her higher diploma in early childhood education at the Hong Kong University of Education.

She started working at the home in June 2020.