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| The Filipina DH is on trial for alleged child abue |
A Hong Kong man who accused his Filipina
domestic helper of assaulting his two-year-old son thrice last March, said in a
trial in West Kowloon Law Courts on Friday, May 19, that he called the police
after reviewing CCTV footage and actually seeing the defendant “throwing” his
son ward into a cot.
The employer, Mr Chan, 30, was the lone prosecution witness in the trial of Shaira Joy Umbao, who pleaded not guilty to three charges of “wilful assault causing injury to a child.”
At the opening of the originally planned
one-day trial before Magistrate Leung Ka-kie, the police officers who arrested
Umbao and investigated her begged off from giving evidence, leaving the
victim’s father as the lone prosecution witness. The defendant is also slated
to give evidence.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE! |
Upon questioning by the prosecutor, Chan
said the assaults took place on March 14, 15 and 16 this year inside his flat
in Shek Yen House, On Yam, Kwai Chung, New Territories.
To support Chan’s accusations, the
prosecution played back five CCTV footages that show the moments the alleged
assaults took place
The first video clip taken from overhead
on March 14 showed the helper pulling the child’s hands with force as to raise
him as he lay on the sofa crying. The child’s crying and the helper’s angry
voice got louder as she yanked the boy.
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| PAPAANO SUMALI? PINDUTIN ITO! |
The second footage showed the seated child’s
legs being pulled with force to turn the boy about 90 degrees right towards the
defendant.
The third footage showed the helper
grabbing the child’s feet and pressing them against a Lego toy on the sofa. The
boy at first seemed to be giggling but his voice turned into crying.
The fourth video showed a woman’s lower half-body
leaving the masters’ room and a child lying on his right side on his cot. The
prosecutor said the footage did not capture the moment when the defendant threw
the boy into the cot, as alleged by the father, but added that Chan insisted he
saw Umbao actually throw the boy into the cot.
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| Magkano? Pindutin ito! |
During cross-examination of Chan by
defense lawyer Vivian Wong, the witness denied that since the Filipina started
working for her in April 2021, she was only allowed to go out thrice on her
holiday.
He denied he was letting the helper work
during Umbao’s day off without pay, saying he was paying her $170 each day off
that she was asked to work.
The witness also denied that he was letting
the helper work from 6am to 1am. Chan disagreed but struggled to explain why
the helper had no room and had to sleep in the living room.
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Wong also got Chan to indirectly admit
monitoring his helper on CCTV even in wee hours, quickly adding that the camera
was focused on Umbao’s feet only, after the defense lawyer asked her how he
knew that the helper was awake watching TV drama or chatting with her mother on
the phone.
When pressed on his statement about the
helper chatting with her mother at 4am, he said the mother was in a different
time zone so she was already awake. Wong corrected him, saying Hong Kong and
the Philippines are on the same time zone.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye |
The defense lawyer also got Chan to
admit that he was treating Umbao harshly because he noticed that the helper and
his wife have close and friendly relations. But he denied the two women were
“sometimes holding hands while walking.”
Chan said at first he, too, was friendly
to Umbao, but when he noticed that she and his wife were beginning to get close,
he treated her harsher as a counterbalance.
Magistrate Leung adjourned the trial
until May 23, when Umbao will give evidence and Wong will sum up the defense’s
case.
The lawyer also applied for bail for
Umbao, saying she had been already in remand for more than two months since her
arrest and might be detained longer than her sentence, if convicted.
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