A Kaohsiung man, who turned himself in 11 years after killing his infant daughter, was found guilty of assault leading to the death of a minor and sentenced to nine years in prison, the Kaohsiung District Court said on Friday.
The court found the man, surnamed Lin (林), killed the one-month-old after losing his temper and hitting her until she was quiet, and then left the apartment.
Lin said that he realized his daughter was dead later when he returned, it said.
Lin wrapped the body in plastic and told the girl’s mother, surnamed Kuo (郭), who was his girlfriend at the time, that he had sent their daughter to live with his mother, the court said.
For the next decade, Lin took the body with him whenever he moved home, until he reportedly experienced a crisis of conscience and went to a police station with the corpse to report his crime in October last year, it said.
Due to decomposition, forensic evidence was limited and only a linear skull fracture was found, which experts said likely resulted from a pre-mortem injury, the court said.
Although Lin denied using an object to hit the girl, judges determined that striking an infant on the head with an open hand constituted criminal intent to commit aggravated assault, and directly led to the death, it said.
While Lin had manifestly failed as a father and concealed a deadly crime for many years, he demonstrated a measure of remorse by freely confessing, so he received a reduced sentence, the court said.
The ruling can be appealed.
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