Hong Kong couple whose baby died after ‘exorcism’ ritual shown mercy by magistrate
Court hears baby girl’s death was a result of father’s psychiatric problems and misguided religious beliefs
Child’s body found under blanket, napkin and diapers in family home after firefighters forced entry to house for police
Hong Kong courts
Brian Wong
Published: 6:25pm, 11 May, 2023
The village house where the body of a baby girl who died after her parents carried out an exorcism ritual was found by police. Photo: Jelly Tse
A Hong Kong couple who performed a ritual exorcism on their 14-month-old daughter before the child was found dead in a village house were on Thursday jailed for three months for child abuse after prosecutors found insufficient evidence to support a murder charge.
Lim Tao-shen, 34, and Carmen Chan Chiu-tung, 33, were at first accused of killing the infant inside their 700 sq ft flat in Kam Tin’s Shui Tau village.
But investigators could not ascertain the cause of the victim’s death because of the advanced state of decomposition after the body was found hidden under a blanket, napkin and a pile of diapers on June 3, 2022.
Acting Principal Magistrate Colin Wong Sze-cheung told Fanling Court on Thursday the death was a result of the father’s psychiatric problems and misguided religious beliefs.
Fanling Law Courts Building, Photo: Winson Wong
“It was not a case where they perpetually neglected their daughter or subjected her to abuse,” Wong said. “The loss of their beloved daughter was itself a severe punishment to the accused.”
The couple pleaded guilty last month to ill-treatment or neglect of the child after they continued with the exorcism ritual even after the child lost consciousness and required medical attention.
The court heard the couple had applied olive oil to the baby and lifted her up while praying that God expel the evil spirits they believed had inhabited her.
The couple started the rite in the early hours of June 1 last year and continued intermittently for 11 hours until the baby, who was said to be healthy and without signs of injury, fell into a coma.
The court was told the couple tried to resuscitate the baby, with Chan also clutching the baby’s neck with her fingers.
Chan’s concerned parents visited the village house two days later as they were unable to contact the couple by phone.
They alerted police after they saw lights in the house turned off after they rang the doorbell.
Firefighters broke into the flat and found the defendants naked on the floor.
The couple first claimed the child had been sent to nursery, but her body was later discovered inside the bedroom.
An autopsy found more than 10 scratches on the baby’s neck and clear signs of livor mortis – blood settling in the lower parts of the body after death – on her back.
The child was estimated to have been dead for one to three days, the report added.
“I’ve done nothing to hurt the baby. I only wanted to exorcise and resurrect her,” Chan told police.
She added that she had hidden the child out of fear after she heard the doorbell.
Further investigation revealed that Lim had been hospitalised from April 29 to May 31 2022 for psychiatric problems.
Defence counsel Stephen Char Shik-ngor said in a plea in mitigation last month that the couple had graduated from the University of Hong Kong and later studied at a divinity school in Canada.
He added they had believed in the existence of evil spirits and that exorcism was required if someone was possessed.
Char on Thursday said the defendants were able to seek psychiatric and psychological help by themselves.
He asked the court to impose a short jail term in lieu of supervision by the Social Welfare Department.
The magistrate agreed and said the couple had shown that they had the ability and will to turn over a new leaf.
He started the prison sentence at 4½ months but cut the term to three months to reflect the couple’s guilty plea.
Chan said “thank you” after sentence was passed.
Lim had been held on remand for 335 days and Chan spent 271 days in custody before she was given bail.
The two were expected to be released after completion of the prison service’s administrative procedures.
Child abuse is punishable by up to two years in jail for defendants facing no other charges in a trial held in magistrate’s court. Murder carries a mandatory life sentence.
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