A mother was put on probation for 12 months on Thursday by Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court for caning, slapping and kicking her 12-year-old son.
The 31-year-old woman surnamed Wong pleaded guilty to two counts of wilful assault causing injury to a child, Sing Tao Daily reported.
The court heard earlier that the boy had been living with his foster mother since 2004 and started to live with his real mother in 2016 when he was 12.
But from November 2016 until May 2017, the boy was punished by his mother – slapped, kicked and hit with a cane for 30 minutes – for poor academic performance, spending long hours watching TV and not studying for exams.
The boy later told his foster mother that he was being abused and they decided to call the police.
The woman’s counsel explained that she abused her son on the spur of the moment and regretted her actions.
The magistrate put the woman on 12 months probation and hoped that the boy’s mother would learn a lesson from the incident. He said the most important thing was to learn how to teach and build up a good relationship with her son, Apple Daily reported.