A man in China has been sentenced to four years in prison after accidentally throwing his six-month-old daughter out of a window, causing her death. According to the South China Morning Mailthe father, identified by his surname Zhao, was under the influence of alcohol when he threw his daughter from the window of his sixth-floor apartment. The girl was immediately taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A court in western China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has found the little girl's father guilty of manslaughter.
According to S.C.M.PZhao had drunk some wine while dining out with his wife and daughter, and returned home intoxicated. His wife left their crying baby with Zhao while she did some housework. When Zhao ignored the baby's cries, his wife expressed her frustration at his carelessness. As they began to argue, Zhao held the baby in his arms and walked to the window of their sixth-floor apartment.
Then, in the midst of the argument, while trying to rock the baby back and forth to comfort her, Zhao accidentally threw her out of the window because she was “drunk and emotionally charged”, stating that “his hands became slippery” .
The couple then rushed downstairs to look for their daughter. Zhao took the toddler to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The doctors determined that the cause of death was severe brain injury and traumatic shock due to multiple organ damage.
The hospital called police after the woman accused Zhao of throwing the girl out the window. In court, the woman testified that Zhao drank almost every day but took care of their daughter.
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The court found Zhao 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 drunk driving to save her after the incident to hospital. The court sentenced the father to four years in prison for his negligence that led to the death of his daughter.
Meanwhile, in a similar incident in 2021, a three-year-old girl in China died after her parents left her in their car for five hours. Last year, a father reportedly left his four-year-old daughter alone at the seaside to get 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 liable for negligence.