Evidence mounts against “bleach mum”

Officers of the Crime Suppression Division say text messages on the popular Line application show that a woman accused of forcing her two year old “son” to swallow bleach isn’t the boy’s biological mother. This evidence, together with DNA test results expected next week, may lead to human trafficking charges being pressed against the woman as well.

A Line chat history between 29 year old Nittha Wongwan and the biological mother of a 4 year old girl adopted by Nittha (before she fell ill and died with similar symptoms to the boy’s) disproves her claim, according to police.

The boy was rescued and placed in a shelter for children in Pathum Thani, just north of Bangkok, after he was treated at Thammasat University Hospital, where doctors alerted police to the suspected child abuse. Authorities say Nittha, who was arrested last week, revealed in the chat that she is not the boy’s biological mother. Nittha has admitted to online fraud but denied a charge of attempted murder.

Nittha stands accused of deliberately making the boy ill to swindle donations from sympathetic viewers of her online videos. A check of her financial history found more than 20 million baht in several bank accounts, contradicting her claim of financial difficulties and an impoverished lifestyle. Investigators are tracking where the money came from and how it was spent.

‘Munchausen syndrome by proxy’ is a mental health problem in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under his or her care, such as a child, an elderly adult, or a person who has a disability. Because vulnerable people are the victims, MSBP is a form of child or elder abuse – Wikipedia.

Police are also checking whether she obtained life insurance policies for the children, which could be treated as a motive. They have already questioned the real mother of the 4 year old girl.

In 2018 Nittha was sentenced to 3 years in prison in a fraud case involving online product sales.

Police are now searching for evidence to prove how the chemical found by doctors actually got into the boy’s body, and a similar probe is being conducted into the case of the dead girl.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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