By Vir B. Lumicao
 |
| The trial of the case at Kowloon City court will last until tomorrow |
A series of video clips were shown in Kowloon City Court today, May 17, to support allegations of child abuse against a Filipina domestic helper.
However, not a single part of the spliced footage showed the defendant, C. Villegas, in the act of hurting the alleged victim, who was four years old at the time.
This led Magistrate Yu Chun-pong to remark at the end of the day that the prosecution could not rely on the edited CCTV clips and the testimony by the girl’s mother who was called as the first witness in the case.
 |
| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Yu also expressed concern about the reliability of the video recorded interviews with the alleged victim and her twin brother who are now both five years old, and the evidence they are expected to give tomorrow
The magistrate said what the children would say in court may be different from what they had said a year ago, and that would not be good for the prosecution's case. He said children at age 4 do tell stories.
Villegas pleaded not guilty to three counts of ill-treating her young ward at the start of the two-day trial.
 |
| Pindutin para sa detalye |
The children’s mother, Mrs Leung, has accused the helper of pinching and hitting her daughter on three occasions on Oct 4, 2019, on Jan 21, 2020 and again on Feb 9, also last year. She called police on the third occasion and the Filipina was arrested.
The alleged assaults reportedly caused a bruise on the girl’s left inner thigh, a red mark on her left cheek, and red mark on her lower left cheek with a small injury near her mouth.
Leung provided the prosecution six CCTV clips totaling about 18 minutes that showed only edited segments of the scenes inside the employer’s living room during the dates of the alleged assaults.
 |
| Call now! |
During her testimony, the prosecutor played back the video and asked Leung to interpret them.
However, the clips did not show the defendant pinching or assaulting the girl, who was crying aloud. Leung would refer to points in the clips where the girl was bawling as the upset defendant tried to spoon-feed her.
“I suspect the defendant pinched her, look at her lowered hand,” Leung said each time the girl cried loudly.
 |
| CONTACT US! |
During cross-examination, defense lawyer Phil Chau played back one particular scene where the frustrated helper grabbed the girl’s iPad because she didn’t want to eat and the girl cried aloud.
Chau also played back a scene where the Filipina was shouting “Don’t hit me, I will tell your dad,” as the girl’s twin punched her a few times. The video also showed the boy climbing on the helper’s back.
The lawyer also got the mother to admit that the twins would often fight over toys and that both kids would cause scratches and red marks on each other. But the woman said the injuries were only light, unlike what the helper had allegedly inflicted.
 |
| Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love. |
After Leung finished her testimony, Chau asked the magistrate to allow him to have a copy of the complete CCTV footages from which the witness had extracted the scenes that she provided the police.
Leung told the court the original videos were already gone, but Chau told the magistrate the witness had with her in court a USB containing a copy of each of the original CCTV footages.
Leung was called back to the witness stand after lunch but she denied having copies of the footages.
The trial continues tomorrow.
 |
| CALL US NOW! |
