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Eastern Magistrate's Court |
A domestic helper pleaded guilty Friday at Eastern Court to beating
her two-year-old ward, resulting in serious injuries, but her sentencing was put
off pending a background check to determine the extent of her culpability.
Magistrate Edward Wong adjourned the case of the Filipino woman
identified only as J.G.M,, 26 years old and a cousin of the child’s mother, to
July 29 for sentencing. She was returned to jail for the meantime.
J.G.M was charged with Ill-treatment by those in charge of a
child, contrary to section 27(1) of the Offences Against the Person Ordinance.
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The charge arose after J.G.M., “being a person over the age
of 16 years and having the charge of X,” allegedly “wilfully assaulted the said X in a
manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering and/or injury to the health of the
said X,” according to the police information filed with the court.
The offense took place on January 17, 2026 at a flat on
Lamma Island.
X was the younger of the Lamma couple's children; the other was four years old, who was uninjured. Their
genders were not disclosed.
On that day, the parents left for work , leaving X in her care.
When they returned in the afternoon, X was crying, with mouth unable to open for feeding, and the head swollen.
When they reviewed the CCTV, they saw J.G.M. slapping and hitting the baby's head with a shoehorn.
They took the baby to the North Lamma Clinic, which arranged
for a helicopter to take it to the Queen Mary Hospital.
J.G.M.’s lawyer said she arrived in Hong Kong in August 2024 in
hopes to raise her family from poverty in the Philippines, but was paid
intermittently by her cousin. “She was paid 1,790 pesos for the last three months,”
the lawyer said.
The lawyer said J.G.M. was feeding the child who was
resisting, and slapped it as a disciplinary reaction. “She understands that’s
not an excuse,” she added.
Magistrate Wong said violence must never be used to discipline
a child.
Nevertheless, he ordered a background study to determine why the defendant hurt the child.
