Ex-care worker jailed for 27 months over abuse at Hong Kong children’s home at centre of scandal
Hong Kong Free Press
A 56-year-old child care worker has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for abuse, marking the heaviest sentence so far for a case linked to residential children’s home at the centre of an abuse scandal.
In total, 34 staff of the care home have been charged with over 100 counts of child abuse, including slapping, shaking and kicking children from their bed. The 40 alleged victims are all children aged three or below.
The Children’s Residential Home in Mong Kok is run by NGO the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children. It takes in infants and children that have not been properly taken care of by their families and have been referred to the home by the Social Welfare Department.
Chan Lai-kuen, the 56-year-old sentenced to two years and three months in jail at District Court on Tuesday, was charged with 13 counts of child abuse. She pleaded guilty to 11 counts on June 19.
The instances of abuse were said to have involved 10 children, including six boys and girls aged one to three, local media reported.
Judge Kathie Cheung said the defendant had abused the same child seven times within 10 days, including stomping on the child’s face and repeatedly hitting the child’s mouth with a water bottle.
The judge added that most of the children in the residential home had experienced sudden changes to their family situation and that children were incapable of defending themselves when faced with abuse, therefore workers should take good care of them.
According to local media, Chan pleaded for mercy and said she had experienced difficulties at work due to a manpower shortage. However, the judge said that was unrelated to most of the charges.
The maximum sentence for child abuse is 10 years.
Of the 16 defendants who faced trial at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts, 15 were convicted, with sentences ranging from four months to one year and two weeks in prison. The remaining defendants are being handled at the District Court.
More cases in NGOs
The abuse scandal at the Children’s Residential Home was revealed by local media at the end of 2021. Citing anonymous sources, Oriental Daily reported that someone had captured videos of staff abusing children at the residency and filed complaints to its dean, forcing the dean to report the case to police.
The Social Welfare Department established a committee to review child residential services after the scandal broke out. Charmaine Lee, director of social welfare, said the residential home was being closely monitored by the department, while seven workers had been deregistered.
Following this scandal, stories of alleged abuse emerged at two other NGOs.
A pre-school centre for children with special needs was accused last September of abusing two five-year-old children. Staff involved in the incident were suspended from duties but no one has been arrested so far.
Soon after, the Social Welfare Department revealed another case of suspected child abuse at the orphaned children service organisation Po Leung Kuk, which was found during routine checks of the NGO’s CCTV. Three care workers were arrested and charged with child abuse.
A 33-year-old employee of Po Leung Kuk was convicted and sentenced to five months and four weeks in prison over the abuse of four children aged one to two on Wednesday.
Rising numbers in child abuse
Hong Kong has seen an uptick in the number of reported child abuse cases over the past two years.
According to the Social Welfare Department, the number of newly registered child abuse cases recorded in 2021 was 1,367, 45 per cent higher compared to that of 2020.
In 2020, the number rose to 1,439. Physical harm is the major abuse among different types of maltreatment, comprising 54.3 per cent, followed by sexual abuse at 30.8 per cent.
The government recently tabled a bill to make it mandatory for people employed in the social welfare, education and healthcare sectors to report suspected cases of child abuse.
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