Macau police arrested a Filipina domestic helper on Thursday for dumping her newborn child in a garbage bin in a residential building on Tueday, Macau News reported.
According to a Judiciary Police spokesperson, the suspect is a 23-year-old woman surnamed Literato, who works as a domestic helper in the Philippines. The woman accompanied her employer, the employer’s mother and two children for a trip to Macau on February 4. They all stayed at a flat in Taipa which was rented by a friend of the employer.
The baby girl was discovered by a cleaner 10am inside a trash bin in a communal utility room of thr 17th floor of Lei Yip Building in Taipa’s Flower City on Tuesday, the spokesperson added. The baby was taken to the hospital after the police arrived.
Literato was intially among the suspects of the case, which she having given birth recently but provided false information. The spokesperson added that given her built, it was not easy to tell that the suspect had just given birth.
However, after a DNA test was conducted, authorities confirmed that she was the baby’s mother, and arrested her.
Literato later confessed during interrogation that she gave birth to the baby girl in the flat’s bathroom at 1am on Tuesday. As the baby did not cry, she thought it had died at birth, so she wrapped the baby in a towel and threw her away, the spokesperson said.
As she has a first-born child now 5-years-old living in the Philippines, the police spokesperson doubted the suspect’s story about having no experience in childbirth. There was no evidence, however, indicating that the employer is involved in the crime.
The suspect, who did not indicate wanting the child back upon learning it was alive, has been transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) and could face a child abandonment charge, which if proven could put the suspect behind bars for up to five years.
The baby girl has since recovered, now weighing five pounds and will be put under the care of the Social Welfare Bureau.