Two sisters, both registered nannies surnamed Liu (劉), have been sentenced for torturing a one-year-old boy in their care to death, the Taipei District Court ruled yesterday.
Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) received a life sentence, while her younger sister, Liu Juo-lin (劉若琳), was sentenced to 18 years on charges including child abuse resulting in death, a panel of professional and citizen judges ruled.
The court found that the sisters “derived pleasure from abuse,” describing their conduct as extremely malicious and severely harmful.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The sisters have also not reached a settlement with the child’s grandmother, while their potential for social reintegration was assessed as moderate to moderately high, the court said.
Hired by the Child Welfare League Foundation, the older sister was assigned to provide fulltime foster care for a one-year-old boy nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴).
Kai Kai’s mother went missing after giving birth to him in February 2022 in New Taipei City.
With the father’s whereabouts unknown, custody of the boy was transferred to his grandmother, who in June 2023 expressed her intention to place him for adoption.
The case was subsequently taken over by the foundation.
Together with her younger sister, who frequently assisted Liu Tsai-hsuan to care for children, the two were indicted in April last year for repeatedly abusing, restraining and injuring the child from September to December 2023.
The sisters not only beat and starved Kai Kai, but also tied him up with ropes and cloth, bent his body forcefully and covered his eyes with a mask, the ruling said.
He sustained at least 42 abuse-related injuries, it said.
Kai Kai was found unconscious on Dec. 24, 2023, and died from his injuries after the sisters took the infant to a local hospital, it said.
Following the verdict, Lin Shuai-hsiao (林帥孝), the lawyer of the child’s grandmother, said that although the ruling did not meet public expectations for the death penalty, he appreciated the court for imposing the maximum sentence as requested by the family.
Lin said that Liu Tsai-hsuan’s life term reflects society’s call for long-term imprisonment to prevent further harm to children.
The family would consider whether to appeal the younger sister’s sentence, he added.
The sisters were also indicted in January last year for allegedly abusing two other young children in their care in 2023.
One reported incident in September 2023 involved forcing a six-month-old to stand with one foot on a chair and the other on the ground, causing pain and distress.
All of the verdicts can be appealed.
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