lokety

The Malaysian newspaper, New Straits Times, reported on Oct 19 that the mother of the late Lau Jun Wei and her boyfriend were charged in a Johor Baru court for culpable homicide.

Tan Chew Yen

Lu Song Seng

The mother, known as Tan Chew Yen, and the boyfriend, known as Lu Song Seng, have been accused of physical and sexual abuse on Jun Wei and ultimately caused his death. If convicted, they can be sentenced to 20 years of jail each. Lu was granted bail, but Tan will be sent to a local hospital for psychiatric evaluation for a month.

Jun Wei’s grandmother and the rest of the family are not satisfied with the charges and wants them to be charged with murder instead. Their lawyer will request for an amendment to the charges with the Attorney-General.

Although I would prefer that Tan and Lu be both charged with murder, homicide may be more accurate in this case as they may not have had the intention to kill Jun Wei. They neglected and possibly intentionally caused hurt to Jun Wei, but they may not have desired him to die.

Whether they had the intention to kill, I think it’s quite obvious they wanted to hurt Jun Wei. This alone shows that Tan and Lu do not deserve any compassion from the public. Their deeds must be known to everyone as a reminder that many children are abused and we must do all we can to stop similar cases from occurring.

The housemates where Jun Wei lived should also be questioned. They must learn from this that being ignorant about their suspicions prevented them from saving a child’s life.

Related post:

Three Year Old Boy Brutally Abused To Death in Malaysia

Links:

<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manslaughter>
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filicide>
<URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Zhang>

Technorati Tags: lau jun wei, jun wei, tan chew yen, lu song seng, child abuse, homicide, murder, child murder, manslaughter, filicide, johor baru, physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychiatric evaluation, neglect