The abuse that still continued after their divorce, because they didn’t really “separate” from each other, still lived under the same roof! The murder, that stemmed from the years of abuse she’d endured, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
Eighteen years ago, Chang filed for divorce from her husband, because he got violent and threatened to kill her children, and she’d decided to stay in the same house, so she could protect their children. Three years ago, she could no longer stand her ex’s verbal abuse, she’d mixed the pesticides into his milk and poisoned him. The High Courts in Taiwan opened the trial of the case yesterday, her children appeared in court as families of the victim, but they begged on behalf of their mother, they’d stressed that their mother had “endured through the pressures that no normal person can withstand”, even the D.A. believed that Chang’s predicament was understandable.
The fifty-five year-old Chang had two children with her ex, Huang, he’d worked as a driver professionally, but was diagnosed with diabetes and retinal problems and could no longer work, he’d gotten violent with his ex-wife and children too. They were divorced back in 2000, but for the sake of keeping an eye on her young, she’d stayed in the same house with her ex.
On February 3, 2005, Chang was cussed at by her ex again, and she’d added the pesticides to his milk; shortly after Huang drank, he’d started foaming at the mouth and fell. An hour later, she’d turned herself into the police, said, “I, I killed him.”, in the first trial, the Taoyuan District Courts found her guilty of murder, sentenced her to four months in prison.
The high courts held its session yesterday, Chang stated, “I’m very remorseful, I never thought to kill him.”, and told of how she was often physically and verbally abused by her ex, that sometimes, as she’d worked nights and came home late, her ex locked up the doors, and she could only sleep at his eldest sister’s house upstairs.
The judge asked her how she’d endured the abuse for so long? Chang said, that her ex was very picky with food, and every time the meals she’d prepared didn’t fit his liking, he’d gotten angry, they lived in the mountains of Guishan, the traffic wasn’t flowing well, and, she couldn’t talk back to him, risking the lives of her own children.
And the children had their separate families, and showed up in court as the families of the victims to make their testimonies, but they all spoke on their mother’s behalf. The son said, that his father is lazy, never took care of them, that the reason why his mother did what she’d done, was because she was forced to, “The pressures that was on my mother no normal person can possibly imagine!”, hoped that the judge “Could give my mother a chance, I can’t be without my mother now.”
The daughter described her experiences of living with her father being “very scary”, back when she was younger, her father took a woman home, and ordered the children to go into their rooms, to NOT come out, and after they were married, she’d once consoled her mother to move out, but her mother couldn’t, because she had a “soft heart” that was why she kept getting abused by him.
The district attorney said, Chang’s fighting back was understandable, and if the Collectivist Court decided to sentence her lightly, they would have no objections.
In the process of testifying, Chang started crying begged the judge to not sentence her too heavily, claimed, “I’m so regrettable, I’d not thought too much about it”, begged the judge to “give us, citizens, a chance to make amends”. The verdict is set to come out on May 16th.
And so, the case of domestic violence ended in MURDER, because this woman finally couldn’t take it anymore, and, imagine all those pervious years she’d lived with this abusive man, and, he’d threatened to kill her young too, but, she’d still murdered her ex, and so, she can’t be found “not guilty”, but due to the circumstances surrounding her case, hopefully, the judge will sentence her more leniently, after all, she had to kill him, or, she would have to endure through more abuse!
Life, the Obstacle Course 