Tainan child dies while in care of unlicensed nanny

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) The death of a one-year-old boy in Tainan while being taken care of by an unlicensed babysitter is under investigation.

The babysitter, surnamed Lee (李), called to police for help on Wednesday, reporting that the boy's heart had stopped beating and the boy had stopped breathing, but the boy was pronounced dead before arriving at a hospital.

Police referred the case to the Tainan District Prosecutors Office for further investigation after being unable to determine the cause of death. They also did not offer any indication that the nanny was involved in the child's death.

Tainan's Social Affairs Bureau told CNA on Friday that after receiving the report of the child's death on Wednesday, it also looked into Lee's background and found that she was not licensed as a childcare provider.

It said Lee had neither obtained a childcare worker certificate nor registered as a home-based childcare provider and that because she was caring for children outside the third degree of kinship, she had violated the Child and Youth Welfare and Rights Protection Act.

Because of that, Lee will be fined NT$60,000 (US$1,866), but the bureau said determining the cause of the boy's death and whether there is any criminal liability will be up to the Tainan District Prosecutors Office.

The bureau did say, however, that if Lee was found to have violated Article 49 of the Child and Youth Welfare and Rights Protection Act by engaging in improper conduct toward a child, she could face a fine of up to NT$600,000.

Three young men were also arrested after trying to harass Lee on Thursday night.

The three men, a 21-year-old surnamed Tsai (蔡), a 22-year-old surnamed Cheng, and a 20-year-old surnamed Wang (王) went to Lee's residence after her address was exposed on the internet when the story went viral, and threw eggs and scattered joss paper at the site.

Police arrested Tsai and Cheng later that night, while Wang reported to a police station at about 3 a.m. Friday.

Police referred the three men to the Tainan District Prosecutors Office on suspicion of intimidation and offenses against public order under the Criminal Code.