The defendant N.L.T. earlier pleaded guilty to ill-treatment or neglect towards a young person of her charge and arson.

The District Court case was handled in the Tsuen Wan Law Court today before Judge Jason Wan Siu-ming.

Passing down the sentence, Wan said the nature of this case was comparatively less serious, and X didn’t sustain any significant injury.

Yet, he doubted if a probation order was the appropriate option in NLT’s case, given she had already been given one back in 2020 for another child abuse offense.

Wan noted that although arson is a serious offense and it is common practice to hand down immediate imprisonment, the court will give NLT one last chance to let her live her life.

Wan also referred to a report that said NLT’s attitude has improved, and X is willing to continue living with her. Their mother-son relationship has enhanced as well.

NLT was also ordered to meet a psychiatrist regularly and attend a community intervention group to cure her alcoholism.

The court heard that NLT was unhappy after finding out her son “X” was watching videos on YouTube during a break from the online classes on Valentine’s Day last year. X later tried to grab a bottle of red wine from NLT to stop her drinking but was slammed for not paying attention to the online classes.

X, frustrated, secretly left home as he caught NLT off guard. X later returned home only to find NLT throwing a tantrum and blasting X for not studying hard. NLT then threw plates and bowls on the ground and a frying pan at X. X’s lower legs were hit multiple times.

NLT left home to buy more alcohol but found X locked the door and blocked it with the fridge. NLT then used her lighter to set the fai chun (traditional decoration) on the door ablaze in a bid to smoke her son out of the flat. The smoke wafted into the home, and X had difficulty breathing; neighbors who witnessed the scene reported it to the police.