Overstayer deserted infants conceived as a sex worker
A Chinese overstayer who abandoned two infant children nine years apart has been jailed for 21⁄2 years.
Yuiuo Qin, 34, appeared for sentencing at the Auckland District Court yesterday.
She earlier admitted two charges of child abandonment, three charges of dishonestly obtaining a service from Auckland City Hospital, and various other dishonesty charges including failing to answer bail, and using a woman’s bank card to obtain more than $18,000.
Qin came to New Zealand from mainland China on a student visa in 2001 but began overstaying in 2003, supporting herself through cleaning and sex work.
The children she subsequently gave birth to were the product of her sex work, the court heard.
In 2006 Qin gave birth to her eldest daughter at Auckland City Hospital, registering herself as a patient with identification stolen from an acquaintance’s purse.
After the birth of that daughter she continued to work in the sex industry, leaving her infant child with her landlord.
In September 2007, with the baby in the care of that landlord, Qin left her daughter and never returned.
In 2012 Qin gave birth to a second child, a son, and used fake identification to register for hospital services.
She left that child in the care of an associate but failed to pick him up on an agreed date in 2016.
Qin went on to have a third child, again obtaining hospital services under an assumed identity, and gave birth in June 2016.
‘‘Once is pretty bad but twice is unacceptably bad,’’ Judge Clare Ryan said at Qin’s sentencing.
‘‘It’s fortunate the police got involved before something happened to the third [child].’’
Judge Ryan described Qin as ‘‘disturbingly unconcerned’’ with the effects on her children.
The two eldest were now living under different names with foster parents, having initially been put into Child Youth and Family (CYF) care.
The third child was in the custody of Qin’s new partner.
Qin is now pregnant with a fourth child and following her prison sentence will be liable for a deportation order.
Her partner of one year told the court he planned to follow her on her return to China.
Qin’s eldest child, now aged 10, was said to want nothing to do with her mother and was particularly upset to learn she had siblings, the court was told.
Her second child, a son now aged 4, was said to be ‘‘selectively mute’’ and had once gone three weeks without talking.
He appeared ‘‘confused and highly conflicted’’ and exhibited a high degree of selfreliance, aloof behaviour, selfsoothing, and emotional attachment, Judge Ryan said.
The pair had suffered the ‘‘extreme end of psychological harm’’, she said.
‘‘They were young, vulnerable and innocent and you let them down.’’
Qin told authorities she had left the two children with nannies that she claimed had turned the children over to CYF after she failed to pay them.
A probation services report writer submitted to the court that Qin appeared unremorseful for her offending, but that was disputed by Qin’s lawyer Michael Kan who said Qin ‘‘does feel she did something wrong to her children’’.
Judge Clare Ryan appeared incredulous at the submission.
‘‘Did she never think about that daughter for 10 years? What she was doing? What she looked like? How she was?’’ Judge Ryan asked.
In a letter to the judge, Qin said she loved her two children and admitted she had ‘‘broken’’ their hearts and would accept her punishment.
‘‘I do love my children and family more than anything in this world,’’ Qin wrote in the letter.
However, Judge Ryan said that was ‘‘hard to reconcile’’ given her lack of attempts to see her children.
She jailed Qin for 21⁄2 years but declined to impose a reparation order.
The woman whose bank card she had used sought $18,000, while Auckland City Hospital sought $23,000 for the care Qin had fraudulently obtained.
Judge Ryan said given Qin would likely be deported at the end of her sentence there was no point imposing a reparation order. – Fairfax NZ