Poor father ‘suffers’ instead of unhappy daughter

On May 18, in the deserted court hearing at the 3rd courtroom of the Hanoi People’s Court, there were two men crying together for a victim. One regretted killing his wife in a fit of anger, the other agonized over not being able to advise his daughter to leave a painful marriage.

The verdict determined, Vu Thanh Hung, 38 years old and Ms. Ha, residing in Son Tay town, married in 2018, had three children. Due to conflicts, Ms. Ha repeatedly asked for a divorce, but Hung did not accept.

Around 10 am on February 16, 2021, seeing his children crying while playing together, Hung came to resolve. Ms. Ha thinks that Hung only loves the second child, not the eldest, so the couple argues. While raising her voice, she asked for a divorce, saying that she would bring the oldest and youngest children to her mother’s house.

After lunch, Hung went to the kitchen and took a knife to cut his wife holding their youngest child, 8 months old, saying: “Do you know your crime yet?”. Ha put the child on the bed and ran away. Although his 7-year-old daughter and neighbor intervened, Hung still chased his wife and took her life.

In front of the podium, Hung admitted to killing his wife in anger, but he did not remember how many times he stabbed the knife, only knowing “a lot”.

“The defendant has had three wives, why can’t anyone stay with him? When angry, do you think about the day when the three children are helpless because their mother died and their father was imprisoned?”, the chairman was stern. ask. Hung just crossed his arms and bowed his head.

Hung’s behavior was assessed by the prosecutor as “thugs, barbaric, extremely serious, stemming from unnecessary petty conflicts”, and suggested the death penalty.

Hearing the impeachment, Mr. Nguyen Minh Chau, Ha’s biological father, crying on behalf of the victim, asked to reduce the sentence for his son-in-law. “Thinking of my daughter, I can’t live. Today, when I see the person who harmed my child, I just want to chop her up, take blood to pay the blood debt. But please have mercy on the three children, their mother is dead, please take mercy. so that your father and son can reunite,” the 70-year-old father choked, pulling his sleeve to wipe his tears.

The father’s plea was not enough for his son-in-law to be forgiven by the law. Hung calmly received the death sentence, turned to his father-in-law, clasped his hands to apologize before getting in the car and returning to the prison.

Behind, Mr. Chau also hurriedly left the court to the old guardhouse at the top of Le Lai dormitory, Son Tay town, about 50 km away. Here, his three grandsons are looking for a child who lacks caregivers. His wife and son are bedridden, waiting for him to cook, feed, and apply medicine.

A week after the trial, between the four walls had grown moss, cluttered with pots and pans, toys, diapers, wheelchairs and medicine bottles, Mr. Chau said. VnEpxpress Her daughter’s death wasn’t the only incident that hit her roof.

In 2015, Ha’s first marriage broke down. Not long after, the eldest son, born in 1982, and his wife Chau both fell ill, so they had a stroke, could not control eating, cleaning, and gradually lost the ability to walk and talk.

The profession of slaughtering chickens is not enough to support the family, Mr. Chau told his daughter to stay at home to work as a sewing assistant, to take care of his brother and mother. He returned to Hanoi to apply for a full-time job as a security guard for a building in the center, only returning home once every 3-4 months.

Working all day around in the garage, his only joy and spiritual support are the conversations with his daughter at the end of the shift. He doesn’t have a smartphone, sometimes just asking someone else’s phone to send pictures to each other.

But the events of 2015 have not stopped, when Ha gave birth to her first daughter in August. The baby’s father is Hung – who has two wives and has a reputation of “unwise”, or gambling.

It was around the time that the child was born, Hung was being treated for 4 months at the Central Psychiatric Hospital I, with a diagnosis of “mental and behavioral disorders caused by the use of hallucinogens”.

Returning from the treatment, Ms. Ha and Hung lived together at Hung’s house. Fearing that his daughter would once again fall into a painful marriage, he repeatedly advised to rethink but failed. “It said: Dad, don’t worry about me, if there’s any suffering in the future, I’ll bear it,” he said.

In 2018, Hung and Ha registered their marriage and gave birth to a daughter. After the unsatisfactory marriage of parents, the father and son’s chatty conversations gradually became less frequent.

When communicating, Hung is “smart in speech”, always showing a peaceful life, but he is always worried about his daughter’s happiness. And when Ha was pregnant for the third time, the unhappiness gradually became impossible to hide.

Mr. Chau said that at the beginning of 2020, he once visited and saw his daughter lying in a corner of the house, her head covered with a hat, her eyes were wearing sunglasses, her body was bruised and scratched. Being questioned by her father, Ha just burst into tears, saying that she had fallen. But the later the pregnancy, he realized, the more wounds on the baby’s body.

Since then, he no longer asked his son the reason, but advised a divorce so as not to cause more suffering for the mother and daughter. “Ha still reacted like the first time I advised not to marry Hung,” he said.

On the afternoon of the 5th of the New Year of the Ox, ie February 16, 2021, Mr. Chau received a phone call from a relative saying “it’s urgent, there’s something wrong at home”, but he definitely did not say anything. He worried that his wife or son would not be cured. But when he heard that his daughter was murdered by his son-in-law, he said he fell to his knees as if a knife had been stabbed in the chest.

“All the way back, I just wanted to crash into a car and die,” Mr. Chau lost his voice as he recalled painful memories.

Mr. Chau had just finished his story, suddenly his 2-year-old grandchild ran into his lap, as if pulling him back to reality. He calmed down, hugged the baby in his arms, comforted him, and fed the half-eaten spoons of porridge.

Ha passed away before weaning her youngest child. Living with his grandfather since then, the boy day and night, just clinging to him. Lack of love from a young age, Mr. Chau said, perhaps because of that, seeing anyone, even a stranger, the boy also swooped in and stroked his cheek, asking for a hug.

Loving the old and weak brother, taking care of two paralyzed people alone, three children, a younger brother living in the same alley took two older children to take care of.

Mr. Chau said he was “afraid to continue living” because his sorrow for his daughter never stopped tormenting his mind every day. But he was also afraid of dying because his wife, son, and grandchildren would not have someone to take care of. “My driving force in life, that’s all there is now,” he said.

* The victim’s name has been changed

Hai Thu