A mum has been jailed for leaving her newborn baby to die in a leather handbag causing the infant to suffocate.
The 21-year-old surnamed Lai, from Sanxia District in Taiwan's northern city of New Taipei, was arrested after her son was found dead by police who arrived to inspect the abandoned bag.
The infant, who was just three days old at the time, was declared dead by paramedics.
An autopsy later confirmed he had died of asphyxiation after being deprived of oxygen in the bag.
After Lai's arrest, investigations revealed that the newborn was her second child.
She did not know who the father was and claimed she lacked the means to raise the baby.
She told police she was too afraid to tell her parents, so just two days after she gave birth to the boy in her bathroom on August 18, she put him in the handbag and left him on the scooter in New Taipei's Yingge District.
According to reports, the handbag was found by a scooter owner who moved it into the footwell of a neighbouring scooter, whose owner called the police.
The New Taipei District Court announced this week that Lai's crime carries a minimum sentence of seven years.
However, given her circumstance and especially her young age, they decided on a sentence of three years and eight months.
Lai can appeal the verdict, while her firstborn is in the care of her parents.
