Lee Fu-chen (黎馥甄), 21, had little choice but to grant custody of her one-year-old son to her husband's aunt in 2004, when the single mother was jailed for hawking bootleg DVDs.
With her husband having flown the coop and no family to speak of, Lee grudgingly sent her toddler son Lee Lun-chi (黎倫池) to stay with his paternal aunt Chen Chin-nian (陳金年), who she didn't know very well, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) reported yesterday.
Money and screams
At the end of Lee's prison sentence last month, Chen threatened over the phone to beat Lee's son unless she gave the aunt NT$400,000 (US$12,140), the report said, adding that Chen would strike the boy during every call, eliciting his screams and sobbing for Lee to hear.
Recently released and destitute, Lee couldn't pay the aunt the NT$400,000 she requested and didn't know where to find her.
Lee therefore turned to the Social Affairs Bureau in her native Taichung County, the report said, calling the bureau many times last month, as well as a local child abuse hotline (113), the Child Welfare League Foundation and the Taiwan Women and Children Association, pleading for help from those organizations.
No help
They all refused to help Lee, citing the fact that she didn't know where her son was, the report added.
The bureau suggested she look for her son herself, while the foundation and association said that intervening in Lee's case wasn't their responsibility, the report said.
"We can't do anything without an address," a hotline representative was quoted as saying to the desperate mother.
Nightmare
Then, the nightmare reached its inevitable climax.
Little Lee succumbed to his injuries, dying after a series of brutal beatings at the hands of his aunt on Friday.
Battered to death with baseball bats and beer bottles, the boy's body is currently in a Taichung morgue, awaiting an autopsy to determine the precise cause of death, the report said.
Head trauma and strangulation with a rope were possible causes, the report added.
A subsequent search of Chen's home by police revealed multiple bloodied blunt instruments, as well as a filthy environment in which dogs were allowed to run loose, urinating and defecating at will indoors.
"Mom's here now! Wake up!" Lee was quoted as saying, as she reportedly sobbed over her son's broken body in the morgue during identification.
Case opened
The Liberty Times report said that while the social affairs bureau and NGOs claimed they were unable to intervene, the bureau had already opened a case on the boy in 2005 following an incident in which he had allegedly slipped and fell, requiring medical attention.
At the time, bureau officials suggested to Chen that the boy be placed in a home, the report said.
On Dec. 27, the bureau reportedly contacted Chen for a second time in connection with Lee's pleas to find her son.
Because of the inexperience of the social workers handling the case, however, the bureau didn't intervene beyond a house call, the report added.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
Taiwan and its Pacific ally Tuvalu on Tuesday signed two accords aimed at facilitating bilateral cooperation on labor affairs, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The governments inked two agreements in Taipei, witnessed by Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and visiting Deputy Tuvaluan Prime Minister Panapasi Nelesone, MOFA said in a news release. According to MOFA, the agreements will facilitate cooperation on labor issues and allow the two sides to mutually recognize seafarers’ certificates and related training. Taiwan would also continue to collaborate with Tuvalu across various fields to promote economic prosperity as well as the well-being of their
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
RSS