The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld the sentence against a woman and her boyfriend, who beat the woman's daughter to death.
In March, the seven-year-old girl was seriously abused by her mother Lin Hsiu-yi (林秀儀), 27, and her boyfriend Kao Ming-cheng (高明誠), 28, over a two-week period, causing 18 serious wounds on her body. She died because of the severity of her injuries.
The high court yesterday agreed with a ruling by the Taipei District Court and sentenced the two abusers to 11 years in prison.
In February, the girls' neighbors noticed that the girl was often wearing only light clothing in winter and asking them for food because of hunger.
The neighbors reported the matter to Taipei police, but the police simply told the girl's mother to take better care of her, and did not report the suspected abuse case to Taipei City's bureau of social welfare.
After the tragic death of the little girl, the bureau of social welfare fined the police in charge of the case for neglect of duty, and the officers were also disciplined by police authorities.
The Taiwan High Court's ruling yesterday said "Lin and Kao were extremely cruel to torture a little girl to death, so the court maintains the heavy sentence against them."
The ruling said the girl was not only beaten by hand and with sticks, but she was also burned by cigarettes. The two defendants were charged with causing bodily harm resulting in death.
Kao has been detained since the incident occurred in March. Lin was also initially detained, but released in June because she was pregnant. Kao yesterday asked judges to release him because he needs to take care of his father, but judges rejected his plea.
Meanwhile, a two-month-old male infant was beaten to death by her mother on Sunday night at her Taichung County home. The baby's mother Huang Chia-chun (黃佳鈞), 20, told police that because her son was crying a lot, she suddenly lost control and beat the baby.
Huang and her husband told police that she had suffered from postpartum depression since the baby was born. Huang was charged with causing bodily harm resulting in death, and released on bail.
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