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Former domestic worker Maribel H. David was jailed for 14 months on July 13 for aborting her eight-month-old baby and dumping it in a rubbish bin in North Point last January.
District Court Judge Timothy Harry Casewell also imposed a concurrent two-month jail term on the 37-year-old Filipina for overstaying in Hong Kong for about a year and a half.
David had earlier pleaded guilty to breaching her condition of stay, administering a poison to procure her own miscarriage, and preventing the lawful burial of a body.
Casewell said that in a case of administering a poison with intent to procure miscarriage, it was the pharmacist who sold the drug without a doctor’s prescription who should have received the stiffer sentence.
“The defendant wouldn’t have been in a position terminate the pregnancy on her own had she not been sold the drug without a doctor’s prescription,” then judge said.
He also noted that David was forced to overstay after being unable to find a job within 14 days after the termination of her contract so she could continue supporting her two young children.
The judge also took into account the defense lawyer’s plea that David needed to go back to her children, now aged 11 and 13, as they needed her support. The children are now in the care of their maternal grandmother
Casewell also cited the defendant’s act of calling the police herself and asking to be taken to hospital hours after the abortion, and telling them all the circumstances of the case and admitting all the offenses.
The Filipina was arrested by police in hospital on Jan 7 this year, a day after officers took her bleeding to Pamela Youde Nethersole Hospital in Chai Wan.
There she admitted terminating her pregnancy two days earlier by taking 12 Cytotec pills, then putting the baby in a plastic bag which she then dumped in rubbish bin near City Garden Hotel in North Point.
She also told police the baby's father was her Filipino boyfriend.
Hearing of another maid’s infanticide charge reset to Sept
A Filipina maid who allegedly dumped the body of her newborn in a toilet bowl in a Sham Tseng commercial center in April briefly appeared in Tsuen Wan Court on July 7.
Aileen Grado, 37, did not make any plea and she was ordered remanded in custody by magistrate Cheang Kei-hong.
The prosecutor applied for an adjournment until Sept. 1 pending a medical report.
Grado is facing a charge of infanticide.
She allegedly delivered the baby boy at a nearby estate, wrapped it in layers of tissue paper and cloth, and put it in a bag, then took it to the ladies’ toilet in the commercial center.
A female worker in the mall found the wrapped body under the water closet when she investigated the source of a foul smell in the toilet on April 4. Grado was arrested in Central a week later after her former employer tipped off the police about the maid confessing she was pregnant and resigning.
