A man in China has been sentenced to 4 years in prison after he accidentally threw his six-month-old daughter out of a window, resulting in her death. According to the South China Morning Post, the father, identified by his surname Zhao, was under the influence of alcohol when he threw his daughter out of the window of his sixth-floor flat. The girl was immediately taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A court in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of Western China found the little girl’s father guilty of manslaughter.
According to SCMP, Zhao had consumed some wine during dinner while dining out with his wife and daughter, and he returned home intoxicated. His wife left their crying baby with Zhao while she attended some housework. When Zhao ignored the baby’s cries, his wife expressed her frustration over his carelessness. As they began to argue, Zhao held the baby in his arms and approached the window of their sixth-floor flat.
Then, amid the argument, while attempting to rock the baby back and forth to comfort her, Zhao accidentally threw her out of the window due to being “drunk and emotionally charged,” stating that “his hands got slippery”.
The couple then rushed downstairs to find their daughter. Zhao drove the toddler to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The doctors determined the cause of the death to be severe brain injury and traumatic shock resulting from multiple organ damage.
The hospital called the police after the wife accused Zhao of throwing the girl out of the window. At the court, the wife testified that Zhao drank almost every day but had been caring towards their daughter.
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The court determined that Zhao was guilty of manslaughter rather than murder, concluding that he lacked the motive to kill her and made genuine efforts to save her life, even risking drink-driving to take her to the hospital after the incident. The court sentenced the father to four years in prison for his negligence that led to his daughter’s death.
Meanwhile, in a similar incident in 2021, a 3-year-old girl died in China after her parents left her in their car for five hours. Last year, a father reportedly left his 4-year-old daughter alone by the seaside to retrieve his phone from the car. The girl was swept into the sea, and her body was found two weeks later.
In both cases, the parents were not held legally accountable for negligence.
