Hong Kong father accused of murdering daughter, 5, denies physical punishment was intended to cause grievous bodily harm
- Father tells court he withheld girl’s food or hit her with rattan cane, but punishment was in response to her lying or refusing to listen
- The man and his wife have admitted to inflicting child cruelty on the child over 150 days but deny murdering the girl, who died of septicaemia
A Hong Kong man on trial for allegedly murdering his five-year-old daughter has denied he intended to cause her grievous bodily harm when punishing her for what he said was lying and a refusal to listen.
Making his first public remarks about the circumstances of her death, the 29-year-old father said the girl was a relatively “stubborn daughter” who was given different kinds of punishment, ranging from standing and copying lines to beatings and being denied food.
“The purpose was for her to listen to what [my wife and I] said,” he told a High Court jury on Monday. “What I want for her is to perform her basic duties: to brush her teeth, to wash her face and also to greet others in the morning.”
He added later that most of the punishment was meted out “because of [the child] telling lies”.
Prosecutors maintain the father and 30-year-old stepmother indirectly but significantly contributed to their daughter’s death because their prolonged abuse and neglect had considerably weakened her immune system and ability to fight the bacterial infection that ultimately killed her.
