Hong Kong woman admits trying to cut baby from mother’s womb

HONG KONG - A Hong Kong woman desperate for a child was awaiting sentencing Friday after being convicted of cutting open a pregnant woman’s stomach to try to steal her baby.

Leung Sin-ting, 27, faked a pregnancy by padding her stomach and showing her husband other women’s scan images before the attack which left the unborn infant fatally wounded. The mother survived.

She met her 37-weeks-pregnant victim on a childcare website in September, lured her to her home and strangled her with a cord before slashing a 10-centimetre wound into the unconscious woman’s stomach.

Leung lost her nerve before removing the baby and her husband returned home to find his wife in the kitchen with the woman unconscious and bleeding on the floor, Hong Kong’s High Court was told Thursday.

The victim, identified only as Lee, survived the attack but the infant, delivered by emergency caesarean in hospital after the attack, had suffered brain damage and died six months later.

Leung told police she planned the attack because she “suddenly had an evil idea”, saying she was jealous of the pregnant woman’s happiness and wanted the child herself.

Desperate for a baby, she had fooled her husband of four years, family and friends into believing she was pregnant.

Leung admitted to manslaughter charges. A charge of murder, which she denied, was dropped after the prosecution accepted she intended only to remove the baby from the mother’s womb and not kill it.

Leung also admitted one charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm on the mother. She was remanded in custody and will be sentenced Oct 27 after psychiatric reports are prepared.