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| Villanueva is shown during her arrest in February 2020 |
A 25-year-old Filipina on a dependant’s visa pleaded guilty today to an alternate charge of concealing the birth of her baby girl, whom she threw out the widow of a unit of a flat in Lantau on Feb. 1, 2020, thinking she was dead.
Jill Naomi G. Villanueva, who worked as a parttime receptionist, was originally charged with manslaughter, but because a medical examiner said the premature newborn might indeed have been dead before she was tossed out the window, the prosecution agreed to the lesser charge.
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| PINDUTIN DITO |
Judge Allen Lee ordered probation and background report on the defendant, whose status is now uncertain, as she was arrested and charged before she could become a permanent resident.
The judge extended Villanueva’s bail, but warned this did not mean she would not be jailed,
“All sentencing options are open,”
said the judge.
He set the mitigation and
sentencing on May 3 at 2:30pm.
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| TAWAG NA! |
According to the agreed facts
read by the prosecution, Villanueva had a relationship with a Pakistani male
colleague in mid-July 2019, when she was 21 years old, which resulted in her
getting pregnant.
She kept het condition from her mother, but told her boss.
In September of the same year, the
defendant went to North Lantau Hospital, suffering from abdominal pain. An
abortion was suggested, but as she couldn’t decide, went to the
Philippines to think it through.
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| PINDUTIN DITO |
The following month, she returned to Hong Kong and was again hospitalized due to some bleeding. She declined confinement
as she was worried her mother would find out she was pregnant.
In December of the same year she
sought medical treatment again because of stomach pain. Villanueva mentioned
abortion to her partner and he offered to pay the cost, but she refused.
The night before she gave birth,
she felt unwell after returning from work. She woke up early the next morning
and sat on the toilet for about 10 minutes, and gave birth to a baby girl.
The defendant said the baby, who
had fallen into the toilet, did not cry at all, which made her think that the
newborn was dead. She washed the baby’s body and wrapped her up, then threw her
out the window.
Villanueva said she did not think
of calling an ambulance because her mind had gone blank.
At about 10:30am that same morning, passersby saw the baby on the street outside no 116, Tong Fuk, Lantau Island and called police. Paramedics confirmed the baby was dead at the scene.
A forensic examination revealed that the baby had multiple injuries including skull fractures and bleeding in the head, heart, lungs and kidneys, which may have been caused by her falling from a height.
However, while the injuries may
have been caused by the fall, the pathologist did not rule out that the baby was
stillborn, or had died shortly after birth.
The defense counsel asked for
probation for the defendant, instead of a custodial sentence, but the judge
said he wanted to learn more about her family situation.
According to her lawyer,
Villanueva was born in the Philippines and studied there for awhile before
moving to Hong Kong on a dependant’s visa, and continued her studies here.
She lives with her mother and an
elder sister in Lantau.
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