A 29-year-old man was convicted of ill treatment or neglect of a child at Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Court on Monday after his girlfriend left her two-year-old daughter in his care for a few days last year.
Appearing in his own defense without a lawyer, Tsui Kin-pong denied the charge but told the court that as he was not the girl’s father, and had only agreed to care of the girl in his home in Tseung Kwan O, in Hong Kong’s New Territories, because of his love for his girlfriend, Oriental Daily reported.
The court heard that the girl’s mother had walked out of Tsui’s home after a quarrel, leaving her daughter in his care. The little girl was with him from May 31 until June 5 last year. On June 5, the woman asked a social worker for assistance to get her girl back.
When the social worker and police officers went to the apartment, they found the girl was very dirty. They also found screws, screwdrivers and other tools scattered around the place.
The girl was sent to a hospital for a medical checkup, during which methamphetamine was found in her urine.
Tsui admitted that he had not helped the girl bathe or changed her clothes during her stay with him. He even left the girl at home alone four or five times when he went out to meet friends or to buy food, Sing Pao Daily reported.
But he denied taking any drugs, claiming the girl’s mother did so.
The magistrate found that apart from providing food for the little girl, the defendant did not take adequate care of her.
The magistrate sought a probation officer’s report and suitability report for a community-service order as well as a urine-test report to determine whether Tsui was a drug addict.
Sentencing was scheduled for March 13.