不幸丧身的幼女被诊断为轻微的自闭症,当时被发现死在放满水的浴缸里,当时母亲宣称自己是将女儿午睡,不知道怎么女儿会自己进到浴缸里,但是法庭还是判她有罪.作者: binfeng2000 时间: 2010-6-18 21:53 标题: re:Mother admits to dro... Mother admits to drowning autistic child
Shannon Kari/National Post
A woman who drowned her four-year-old daughter in a bathtub six years ago told a Toronto court yesterday she hoped to have children in the future — then walked out a free woman.
“I still want to have a baby. I won’t kill another baby,” said Xuan Peng, 38, in between sobs after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Peng was sentenced to five years in prison. Since she had already been in pre-trial custody for 30 months, Peng was given two-for-one credit for time served and was released yesterday afternoon.
She was originally convicted of second-degree murder in March 2008 and was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for at least 10 years. The conviction was quashed and a new trial ordered last December, when it was revealed Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto erred in her instructions to the jury.
In a statement of facts submitted to the court, the prosecution and the defence agreed to a manslaughter charge and the lenient term noting the significance of Peng’s bipolar disorder when coupled with raising an autistic child.
“Given her unique circumstances, especially given the stresses in her life and her mental state, a five-year prison sentence seemed the appropriate range,” assistant Crown attorney Joshua Levy said.
Peng gave birth to her daughter, Scarlett, in 2000 and went into depression. Unable to care for her daughter, Peng and her then-husband sent Scarlett to live with her maternal grandmother in China. When Scarlett and Peng’s mother returned in 2004, Scarlett was diagnosed with autism.
The same afternoon Scarlett was diagnosed, Peng was left alone with the child for three hours — the first time Scarlett had been solely in her mother’s care since September 2001. Frustrated by her daughter’s disruptive behaviour, Peng pushed her daughter’s head underwater in the family bathtub. A pediatric pathologist later declared Scarlett could have lost consciousness in as little as 30 seconds.
“To use the vernacular, Ms. Peng simply ‘snapped,’ ” said Justice Ian Nordheimer. “The facts of this case are, to say the least, tragic.” Although Judge Nordheimer acknowledged Peng’s five-year prison sentence is “at the low end” of the manslaughter prosecution spectrum, he noted the circumstances of the case are unique and Peng does not pose a danger to society.
Defence lawyer Edward Hung expressed Peng’s regret for her actions and intention to seek counselling.
“She has come to grips with the mistake she has made,” he said. “A huge mistake.”
Peng addressed a group of reporters outside the downtown Toronto courthouse after being released, describing the death of her daughter as “the most stupid thing I have ever done.”
“I will feel great regret the rest of my life,” Peng said. “I miss my daughter every day. I still love my daughter. I hate autism.”
Peng, who has no family in Canada, intends to return to China.
A petite, mentally ill woman expressed love and remorse for the four-year-old autistic daughter she admitted drowning six years ago.
“I love Scarlett but I hate autism,” Xuan “Linda” Peng said after she walked to freedom two hours after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
The 38-year-old woman, who was diagnosed in 2002 as being bipolar, was sentenced to the equivalent of five years plus one day for the homicide of Scarlett Chen, her four-year-old, on July 12, 2004.
“This is the most stupid thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Peng told reporters outside court. “I will feel great regret for the rest of my life. I will be a very good mother.”
Peng said her daughter was “a very beautiful baby, very strong and tall, with long legs.”
Peng repeatedly told Justice Ian Nordheimer that she wanted to bear more children and wouldn’t kill “another baby.”
Peng “reacted under pressure in a most appalling way ... but she didn’t do so under any evil ... intention,” said Nordheimer, who also ordered that Peng serve three years of probation and maintain psychiatric treatment.
Peng wasn’t prohibited from being alone with children because she “doesn’t represent a threat to children,” Nordheimer said.
Crown attorney Joshua Levy said Peng should have been protecting her vulnerable child and instead killed her. Peng “snapped” while caring for her autistic child for the first time in almost three years that day at her Rosebank Dr. home in Scarborough.
“Peng, at her wit’s end after a day of bad news and the extreme stress of taking care of her autistic child, snapped. In a moment of frustration and anger, Peng held Scarlett’s head under the water for some time,” Levy said in reading an agreed statement of fact.
When she realized Scarlett was unconscious, she pulled her out of the tub and attempted to revive her. But it was too late and Scarlett never regained consciousness.
“In shock, feeling guilty and not wanting her husband or mother to know what she had done, she placed Scarlett’s body back into the tub full of water. Peng waited downstairs, watching TV and waiting for her husband and mom to come home,” Levy said.
On the same day of Scarlett’s death, Peng, her husband, David Chen, and her mom, Li Ning, heard some crushing news from a Scarborough doctor. He told them Scarlett’s condition couldn’t be cured by surgery and that she would never function normally and would require assistance throughout her life.
“Obviously nothing we can do can bring Scarlett back,” Crown attorney Kim Motyl said. “This was the first time we had heard from Peng about what really happened in that bathtub.”
Last year the Court of Appeal overturned a 2008 conviction for second-degree murder. Peng had served 30 months of a life sentence and was given credit for five years.
Peng, who was born and raised in China and studied civil engineering, married high school sweetheart Chen in 1995. Scarlett, born in January 2000, was their only child. In September 2001, they sent the 20-month-old girl to China to be raised by a grandmother. In March 2004, Scarlett returned to Canada with her grandmother, who remained the primary caregiver.
Chen and Peng are now divorced but remain friends.
最后一句好象和自闭及错杀主题无关，直译为“夫妻分手仍是朋友”。作者: amberbrown101 时间: 2010-6-18 23:28 标题: re:her smile gave me go... her smile gave me goosebumps.作者: 一一妈妈 时间: 2010-6-18 23:32 标题: re:生了又不养，养了三小时就决定溺死亲生女儿... 生了又不养，养了三小时就决定溺死亲生女儿，这女人禽兽不如！如果真是精神病，那么在清醒的时候就应该自杀赎罪，怎么出狱的时候还笑得这么灿烂？！作者: binfeng2000 时间: 2010-6-19 04:31 标题: re:“I love Scarlett but... “I love Scarlett but I hate autism,”
