“How can somebody who has never been loved before love others?” Le Yan said in front of a Nanjing court in September.
Le was identified by the press earlier this year for the cruel way in which she allowed her two daughters, aged one and two, to starve to death, leaving them while she went to buy drugs. When police entered Le’s home, after they were called out by her neighbor, the bodies of the two girls had already been mummified. Le was eating a hamburger in another district of the city when police arrested her, on the same day the bodies were found.
Some of the reasons for Le’s neglect of her own children may be reflected in her own childhood. Soon after she was born, Le’s mother was jailed for theft and didn’t return home after completing her sentence. Her father lost his job in another theft case and ran away from home. Since her parents were not married, Le had no permanent residence permit and was not able to go to school. When local authorities finally admitted her to a primary school in 2001, she was 10 years old. Nevertheless, Le was not interested in her studies. Three years later, she quit school and ran away from the home of her grandparents.
To make a living, she did many jobs, such as working in a bar, a hairdressing salon, a restaurant and a pedicure salon. She was often penniless and often went hungry. When she couldn’t find a place to sleep, she went to the train station. She was once kidnapped, but managed to escape. During a fight, she was cut in the back and got a permanent scar.
When she was about 15, Le met Li Wenbin, who later became her boyfriend. She was a bargirl at the time and was already addicted to drugs. As an unsuccessful bargirl, her drug addiction cost her fortune.
In 2010, Le met Li again at a party and moved in with him a couple of days later. After about five months, she gave birth to a girl. Li knew he was not the father, but he found that Le was incapable of taking care of the baby. It seemed that she was either short of a normal mother’s love or didn’t know how to express it. Li stayed at home and took care of the baby for a whole year.
In 2012, Le gave birth to a second girl. This time, the father was Li. But the birth was totally unexpected. When the couple found that Le was pregnant, it was too late for an abortion. Li spent all his savings on the first girl and in order to feed the second baby, he borrowed 50,000 yuan (US$ 8,218) at an extortionate rate of interest. Despite their difficult living conditions, Le and Li never received any benefits from society. “How can two healthy young people qualify for handouts?” a community worker said.
In early 2012, Le and Li were found doing drugs at home. Li was sentenced to six months in prison, but Le was spared because she had to breast feed the baby. At the end of April 2013, Le left home and left her two daughters enough drinking water and food for four days. She went to another district of the city, because she heard that someone was selling drugs there. Without money to buy drugs, she resorted to prostitution.
On June 21, local police unlocked her apartment and found the one-year-old girl dead on her bed and the two-year-old girl behind the bedroom door. It seemed that the older girl tried to open the door but didn’t succeed. Le filled the cracks of the door with diapers before she left. Even an adult had to try hard to open it. When the two girls’ bodies were found, Li was still in jail. After he returned home, he suffered insomnia and from other conditions. “Every time I close my eyes, I can hear the two girls crying. My elder daughter is calling daddy and the little one is crying and crying,” Li said.
Le Yan was given a life imprisonment on Sept.18, 2013, and was pregnant with a third child when she appeared in court.