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Pregnant mom sentenced to life in murder of 2 young daughters by starvation

By Dong Zhen | September 18, 2013, Wednesday | Online Edition

A WOMAN who is three months pregnant was sentenced today for life for leaving her two young daughters unattended at home, causing them to starve to death, according to court officials in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province.

The victims were aged 1 and 2. Post-mortems indicated that the little girls hadn't suffered from food poisoning or other physical injuries. The mother was charged with murder.

Le Yan, aged 22 and a long-time drug addict, was already pregnant when detained by police in a burger eatery in late June after the tragic deaths were discovered at her home by police.

The mother is accused of giving little food or water to the girls and then abandoning them inside their apartment, locking it from the outside, in Nanjing.

Legal experts said her pregnancy would make a death penalty ruling impossible.

Community police officers visited the house on June 21, broke in and discovered the tragic scene.

At the time, the woman's boyfriend, father of the younger girl, was in jail on charges of allowing others to use drugs at their home. That left the woman with sole custody of the girls.

The case has been closely watched by the public. The courtroom was full with journalists and citizens with many waited outside.

When a member of the jury asked if she knew "what is love" for the kids, the weeping young woman said in court, "That is to give them the best things."

She admitted to "having given her daughters nothing at all."

"I would like to have someone adopt the kid or send the child to the government foster agency since I would be in serving my term," the woman said in the court when asked what she planned to do about her current pregnancy.

None of Le's relatives attended the hearing today. The woman was born outside wedlock and her mother later married and refused to stay in contact with her, according to previous media reports.

Police said the woman covered the window latches of their apartment in clothing and locked the door to imprison the girls.

Her boyfriend's grandmother had attempted to see her great-granddaughters on May 17 but couldn't get in. The senior had talked with the girls from the outside of the door. The defendant visited the grandmother's home that evening and promised she would take food home.

Community police say the defendant called police on June 20, asking for help with living expenses. When officers visited her home the next day, no one was home, so they called a locksmith to break in and discovered the girls' decomposing bodies.

The woman's boyfriend, surnamed Li, was released from jail and returned to their home last month and said the loss of the girls haunted him. "Every time I closed my eyes, I heard my elder daughter calling me and my younger one crying and knocking at the door," he told China Business View.

The woman was already pregnant with the elder daughter, from another man, when she moved in with Li. The woman is semi-illiterate and had been working as a nightclub hostess on and off, said her boyfriend.

The woman was detained for taking drugs in 2012.

Nation


 

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