Man sentenced to life in prison for smothering son - Taipei Times

A man was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday after a court found him guilty of suffocating his five-year-old son to death while the child slept in May last year.

The defendant, surnamed Chien (簡), was given a life sentence and stripped of his civil rights for life, according to Presiding Judge Liu Kuei-king (劉桂金). The ruling can be appealed.

In reaching the verdict, the six citizen judges and three professional judges considered the long-term stress Chien faced due to financial instability and frequent altercations with his wife and weighed that against the gravity of the crime and his potential for rehabilitation, Liu said.

Photo: Taipei Times

Chien's wife, surnamed Chang (張), and her brother asked the court to sentence Chien to death, Liu said.

According to the court, Chien and Chang separated in April last year and agreed that Chang would take primary care of their son, although the boy sometimes spent time with his father in Keelung with Chang's consent.

During one of those stays, Chien suffocated the five-year-old to death with a pillow while he slept, according to the court.

Chien said he harbored hatred toward Chang, who sought a divorce, and chose to kill their son because she was going to take him away, Liu said.

During the trial, Chien said he was drinking during the incident, but the court said that he provided coherent answers during police questioning, proving he was not significantly impaired, Liu said.

Separately, Tainan prosecutors on Friday charged three people with fatal abuse of a five-month-old infant who was found in a drainage canal in December, including the child's parents and a woman who lived with them.

Tainan District Court ordered the father, surnamed Fang (方), and the woman surnamed Ling (凌) to remain in custody.

The two have been detained since Dec. 18 last year, after police found the infant's body and arrested three suspects, including the mother, surnamed Lin (林).

Fang and Ling are suspected of committing serious offenses, including child abuse resulting in death and abandonment of a corpse, which carries a minimum prison sentence of five years, according to the court.

Given their suspected involvement and risk of fleeing or collusion, Fang and Ling have been remanded in custody without visitation rights, the court said.

The child was born in July and lived at a residence shared by the three suspects, prosecutors said.

The family was on a city government watch list for vulnerable households and the case came to light after government workers responsible for tracking the family's welfare reported the infant missing, prosecutors said.

The child's body was found wrapped in plastic bags in a drainage canal.

An autopsy had determined that the infant sustained multiple physical injuries and had been dead for several days before being found, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors alleged the three suspects physically abused the infant multiple times, including striking his head against a wall prior to death in early November.

Lin and Ling then allegedly wrapped the child in plastic bags after which Fang and Ling transported the body to the drainage canal, prosecutors said.

Lin is under a court order prohibiting her from moving.