Mother forced 6-year-old daughter to drink pesticide, sobbing in court

Loan's eyes were swollen and dark, and she repeatedly put her face down on the table and cried when she was brought to trial for forcing her daughter to drink pesticide.

On the afternoon of September 19, the Family and Juvenile Court of Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Tran Le Thi Xuan Loan (29 years old) to 10 years in prison for murder.

According to the panel of judges, the defendant's actions caused particularly serious consequences. Killing a child is against morality and ethics and must be severely punished.

Loan admitted all her crimes and showed remorse. Her eyes were swollen and dark, and she sometimes sobbed on the table.

Loan cried many times in court. Photo: Binh Nguyen.

Loan got married in 2009 and has a 6-year-old daughter. Two years ago, upset about her husband not caring for her and owing more than 200 million VND to many people but not being able to pay, Loan had the idea of ​​committing suicide with her daughter.

At noon on July 13, 2016, Loan took her daughter to buy pesticides, then rented a hotel room in District 2 and said she would check out in the afternoon.

She poured the medicine into a glass and forced her daughter to drink it. While the child lay motionless, Loan texted an acquaintance that she and her child had committed suicide and asked her husband's family to use the money from the funeral to pay off their debt, then drank the remaining medicine.

That evening, the hotel staff did not see the woman check out. They went up and found Loan having convulsions and her daughter dead. Loan was taken to the emergency room and survived.

Explaining the cause of the incident, Loan said that from the time she got married until giving birth and raising her child, her husband did not care for her. She had to worry about money for milk and diapers for her child alone.

She started borrowing money when her child was about two and a half years old. At that time, her husband was not working. Later, he worked as a security guard and gave her 500,000 VND per month.

"The defendant had to borrow 5 million, 10 million at high interest rates, so the debt kept growing. When it reached 200 million, the defendant could not pay. The defendant had to bear it all alone and could not confide in anyone," Loan sobbed.

Responding to the jury about the reason for deliberately forcing her child to take medicine even though the child struggled to push her away, Loan stammered for a while and then said that at that time, she only wanted her child to "live and die together". "The defendant did not want to die and leave her child alone with no one to take care of her," Loan said.

Below the audience, Loan's husband sat silently. His chin was propped up in his hand, his red eyes expressionless.

Invited to the court for questioning, he admitted that he was partly at fault for not being able to care for his wife and children, leading to the heartbreaking incident. He also asked the court to reduce his wife's sentence so that she could return to her family soon and had no further comments.

Having the last word, Loan said she was sorry towards her child and asked the court to consider reducing part of her sentence so she could return to her parents and pray for her child.

According to VNE