The Supreme Court has upheld sentences of 10 years and six months each to an unlicensed babysitter and her husband, who were found guilty of causing serious bodily harm to a five-year-old girl and forcing her to lick her own urine.
Tseng Kuan-ling (曾冠羚) and her husband, Hsu Chun-en (許鈞恩), had their appeals rejected by the court after having been sentenced to more than 10 years by the High Court in July for repeatedly abusing a girl surnamed Su (蘇) in Yilan County in February and March last year.
The abuses involved pulling her hair, kicking her body, hitting her head with bare hands, holding and shaking her upside down, starving her and forcing her to lick her urine off the floor.
Photo: Taipei Times files
The sentence, based on the prosecutors’ recommendation, was more severe than that handed down earlier by the Yilan District Court, which found the couple guilty of aggravated assault stunting a child’s development — an offense under the Criminal Code — and sentenced Tseng to nine years and Hsu to eight.
Tseng and Hsu appealed the rulings, taking the case to the Supreme Court.
According to the verdict issued by the district court, abuse on March 5 last year caused Su to froth at the mouth. The couple rushed the girl to a hospital, where doctors diagnosed Su as having sustained severe head injuries.
Su underwent an operation for the injury, which posed an immediate threat to her life, but nevertheless developed major disabilities, including hydrocephalus, palsy to the left part of her body and optic atrophy, the verdict stated.
The High Court stated in its verdict that even though Hsu had paid NT$330,000 to Su’s parents as compensation, the payment was not a legal settlement.
After considering a plea by Su’s parents that the defendants be handed a stricter sentence, the High Court handed Tseng and Hsu an increased prison term in accordance with penalties introduced for aggravated assault leading to the stunting of a minor’s development.
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