A Filipino domestic worker pleaded guilty in Hong Kong’s Kwun Tong Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday to abusing her employer’s two-year-old son and is now waiting to be sentenced on January 7, pending a background assessment report.
Organista Erlinda Benavidez, 40, blamed marital stress for physically abusing her employer’s two-year-old son inside a flat in the city’s Kai Tak district.
She had been with the family since February and admitted slapping the child, pinching his neck and abdomen and pulling his legs numerous times in a half an hour period while feeding him porridge.
She was arrested in mid-December after the child’s father heard usual cries from his son and checked CCTV footage and discovered the abuse, the Apple Daily reported.
The child was sent to a hospital for treatment and was discharged on the same day. The woman made a plea to the court, saying she had two sons and was the only wage-earner in her family as her husband could only plow fields.
Meanwhile, the defense counsel insisted her client had been overworked at the employer’s home and suffered from insomnia as well as marital problems. The counsel said the defendant’s genuine repentance should also be considered as a mitigating factor.
Read: Filipino arrested after being caught on camera hitting boy
Missing = dead not found the body yet.
What cruel employer.
Missing = dead not found the body yet.
What cruel employer.