Saturday, September 12, 2009

Hong Kong woman cut open her pregnant friend's belly

HONG KONG, CHINA - A Hong Kong woman who was desperate for a child strangled a pregnant acquaintance and cut open her belly to remove the baby, a newspaper reported Friday.

Leung Sin-ting, 27, befriended a pregnant woman identified as "Ms Lee" through an online childcare forum, and invited her home to pick up a baby bed and feeding bottles, the South China Morning Post reported, citing a High Court hearing on Thursday.

Leung strangled Lee with the cord of a massager after the victim visited Leung's flat in September last year and told her that she was expecting a baby boy.

After Lee passed out, her attacker cut a gash in her belly, the Post said.

The unborn infant, which was 37-weeks old at the time of the attack, suffered from a brain injury and impaired bodily functions, the report said. It died a short time later after an emergency caesarian operation at a local hospital.

Judge Darryl Saw adjourned sentencing to October after Leung pleaded guilty to a count of manslaughter, pending psychiatrists' reports.

The court heard that the defendant claimed to have suffered miscarriages in 2003 and, since last year, pretended to be pregnant by wearing towels tied under her clothes.

Even her husband did not know that Leung's pregnancy was fake until the day of the attack, the report said.

Leung successfully persuaded a doctor to give her a certificate for claiming maternity leave. She also put her own name on other women's ultrasound images to show family and friends, the report said.

Source : Asia One News

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