Child killer faces death

A mother of four in Kaohsiung was found guilty yesterday for not preventing and then covering up her boyfriend's murder of her two sons.

The mother, Lo Ming-hui (駱明慧), 29, was sentenced to 13 years in prison by Kaohsiung District Court yesterday, while her boyfriend, Liu Chao-kun (劉朝坤), 37, was sentenced to death for murder and brutality against the two children.

Lo was silent as she was escorted out of the court, while Liu said he could not accept the decision. A statutory appeal is required for the case.

The court heard that Lo and the birth father of her children, Hsueh Hsien-hsi (薛憲禧), had lived together since 1993 but were not married.

In 1994, when Lo gave birth to her first boy, Lo Li-chang (駱立菖), Hsueh married another woman but still maintained a relationship with Lo. A year later Lo gave birth to another boy, Lo Li-chieh (駱力傑).

The boys' father was jailed in 1996 for criminal offenses, after which date Lo and Liu took the children to live at Liu's house.

The court found that in January 1998, the younger boy, Lo Li-chieh, was attacked and killed by Liu, who had habitually abused the children.

It was found that on one evening that month, Liu slapped two-year-old Lo and banged his head against the wall after he found the boy was playing with a cabbage and throwing pieces of it onto the floor. At the time the mother was at work.

Liu went out later that night and did not come back with the mother until the next morning, to find that the boy had died.

The mother agreed to cover up her child's murder and even assisted Liu in dumping the body in Pingtung County, the court found.

The boy's death was not discovered until the couple were arrested for his brother's murder in April last year.

The court found that on April 3 last year, Liu beat 5-year-old Lo with some piping and then stamped on his head when the boy fought for some toys with his younger sister, whose natural father was Hsueh.

The mother, who was cooking in the kitchen, did not try to stop the attacks and allowed the child to be murdered by her boyfriend, the court found.

The couple dumped five-year-old Lo at an elementary school in Kaohsiung City, in a similar way to the disposal of the younger boy.

When the police found the body, covered with terrible wounds, they began an investigation and arrested Lo and Liu on a charge of murder one month later.