Angry about money, biological mother beat to death her 3-year-old daughter

On May 23, the Family and Juvenile Court (HCMC People’s Court) opened the first-instance trial of defendant Tran Thi Dung (27 years old, living in Thua Thien – Hue) on the charge of “murder”.

According to the prosecution, only 27 years old, but defendant Dung has up to 5 children and all 5 children cannot be identified as the biological father.

Around September 2020, defendant Dung brought two young children from his hometown to Ho Chi Minh City to sell lottery tickets and beg in many places. By November 2020, the defendant took 2 children to Tan Chanh Hiep ward, District 12, rented a house.

Around 5 am on November 17, 2020, defendant Dung got up to cook porridge for 2 children, then Dung’s daughter, grandson C. (born in 2017) woke up, so she took her daughter to the dormitory area. back to the cooking room. After a while, defendant Dung came out to take his child home and saw that his nephew C. was covered in dirt, so the defendant got angry and hit his daughter’s head with his hand.

Next, the defendant hit the girl’s head repeatedly on the floor while C. cried. Seeing that her baby was bleeding, this mother wiped it clean and continued to hold her child’s ankles, sloping up for baby C.’s head to the floor, corner of the wall, and used her hands to hit the baby’s head and face many times.

At 8 o’clock on the same day, when she took C. to the toilet, she discovered that her daughter was unconscious, so she quickly asked someone to take her to the hospital for emergency. However, due to the serious injury, on January 15, 2021, C. died.

On January 23, 2021, the management of the hostel went to the police station to report the incident.

According to the conclusion of the Forensic Center, Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City, grandson C. suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, multiple injuries leading to death.

At the trial, defendant Dung said that the procuratorate’s prosecution of “murder” was not correct, the defendant only committed the crime of “intentionally causing injury”. The defendant stated that the purpose of the beating was because the child made the child dirty, scared the child and the defendant did not think that hitting the child would cause brain injury leading to death.

“The defendant injured baby C. but the defendant did not know why the defendant beat him like that. Previously, the defendant scolded him, but only hit him 1 or 2 times. When he hit the child, the defendant was upset and worried about not having money,” defendant Dung said.

During the interrogation at the trial, defendant Dung suddenly became tired and could not stand to answer the questions of the jury and the lawyer.

Therefore, after consulting, the trial panel decided to postpone the trial so that the defendant could stabilize his health. The reopening time of the trial will be announced later.

Thanh Phuong