Kaohsiung single mother indicted for starving daughter to death

Kaohsiung, Jan. 20 (CNA) A single mother surnamed Chen (陳) accused of leaving her four-month-old daughter at home alone in Kaohsiung for a week last year, resulting in her starving to death has been indicted on charges of murder, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors Office said in a statement issued Monday.

Chen, 31, gave birth to a baby girl in May last year and moved into a rented en-suite room in a church in Kaohsiung's Dashe District.

On the evening of Sept. 15, she left the baby girl alone in the room without asking anyone else to take care of her and did not return until the morning of Sept. 23, according to prosecutors.

The prosecutors office said that while Chen was away, she was asked about the child's welfare by both her mother and social workers. However, she lied, claiming she had found someone else to care for the baby girl.

As a result, the child starved to death after not being fed for seven days.

An autopsy found that the baby girl suffered from malnutrition, hunger, dehydration, organ atrophy, loss of body fat tissue, and a lack of liver glycogen among others, which led to her death.

The prosecutors office said Chen was arrested in September after they summoned the baby girl's biological father and witnesses for questioning, and confiscated surveillance camera footage for analysis.

The office asked for Chen to be held in incommunicado detention, which Ciaotou District Court approved.

Prosecutors concluded their investigation on Jan. 8 and charged Chen with intentionally killing a child as an adult, the statement said.

The statement added that prosecutors asked the judges and citizen judges involved in the case to hand down a heavy sentence after considering all the circumstances that led to the child's death, including the illegal acts involved, the consequences of those acts and Chen's attitude after the offense.