Hong Kong court sentences 10 former care workers to up to 64 months in jail for mistreating toddlers

A Hong Kong court has sentenced 10 former care workers to up to 64 months in jail and two others to community service for mistreating more than 30 toddlers at a home three years ago in the last of a series of trials arising from the biggest abuse scandal of its kind in recent years.

The District Court on Monday gave the heaviest sentence to Chiu Wing-sin, who pleaded guilty to 49 counts of ill-treatment or neglect for what the judge described as the “barbaric” and “evil” assaults of 38 toddlers over six weeks.

Chiu was among 12 women sentenced on a total of 148 charges for either attacking children or turning a blind eye to the crimes at the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children home in Mong Kok between October and December of 2021.

The court earlier heard Chiu, the mother of two, exacted a spate of physical punishment on the children. Some of them were hit in the head, slapped in the face, gagged with objects picked up from the ground and had their legs forcefully pried open in a split position.

She acknowledged in three subsequent police interviews the assaults were unwarranted, adding she was emotionally disturbed and had difficulty controlling her temper.

Judge Lily Wong Sze-lai said Chiu’s offences would have attracted an eight-year jail term had it not been for her timely guilty plea.