NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: A woman charged with the murder of her young son by pushing him into a canal is not mentally ill as she claims, but killed him because she did not want her new lover to know she had a child, according to the boy's grandmother.
The 21-year-old mother was arrested and charged with the murder of the boy, aged 2 years and 7 months, in Nonthaburi’s Bang Bua Thong district on Feb 26.
Police examined footage from surveillance cameras nearby, and that led to her arrest.
The suspect reportedly confessed she had killed her son, explaining she had been under extreme stress. She was a single mother and had to hold down a job and take care of the boy at the same time.
She reportedly claimed she had been driven by desperation to take the life of her son.
But 40-year-old Malee Khongdam, the boy's grandmother, says that's a load of twaddle.
Mrs Malee said her former daughter-in-law had no mental problems at all. She had begun an affair with a new man and did not want him to know that she already had a child.
Mrs Malee made the allegations at the funeral rites for her grandson at Wat Khiri Noi in Hua Sai district of Nakhon Si Thammarat.
According to Mrs Malee, the suspect had two children by her son. The eldest was now 5 years old. After breaking up with the father two years ago, the woman took the youngest child under her care.
When the boy became an inconvenience to her new love life, she murdered him, Mrs Malee alleged.