HONG KONG, March 21 : A Hong Kong woman on trial for murdering her five-year-old stepdaughter was mentally sound despite feeling so stressed by childcare she “hated” the girl, a court heard on last week
But the expert found these symptoms were not pervasive or severe enough to warrant a diagnosis, because they were reactive to stress and not as generalised as one would expect of depression, which affects the person as a whole, given its nature as a biological illness involving an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain.
The stepmother and the children’s 29-year-old father have admitted to child cruelty inflicted upon the deceased and her brother over 150 days from August 10, 2017, but denied murdering the girl, who died of septicaemia on the following January 6.Prosecutors said the couple had indirectly but significantly contributed to the child’s death because their prolonged abuse and neglect had considerably weakened her immune system and ability to fight the bacterial infection that ultimately killed her.
She also told the psychiatrist she had a bad relationship with her husband’s family and it was decided that they should move in with her mother, which took place on August 10, 2017.Accused’s text message to friend On Thursday, her defence counsel Caesar Lo said her childhood experiences “might have sowed the seed for future psychological illness”, and she was depressed at the material time, with symptoms such as sleeping problems, headaches, and feelings of helplessness and desperation, as reflected by her WeChat and WhatsApp messages.