A Richmond woman charged with aggravated assault for allegedly putting glue in her newborn nephew's ears is scheduled to appear in court next week.
Family members have told police that Wei Wang, herself a mother of two girls, was motivated by jealousy of the son born to her husband's sister and the woman's husband, according to court documents.
They also told police Wang is worried she'll lose out on a family inheritance because she has no sons.
"(The victim's father) explained in Chinese culture it was favourable to have boys and that women who gave birth to two daughters were treated poorly," RCMP wrote in an application for a search warrant of the extended family's house in Steveston.
Glue was found in the seven-week-old baby's ears on Feb. 4, after the parents had left him sleeping in his upstairs crib in the care of his grandparents at 9:30 a.m. The extended family of the grandparents, the two couples and their three children all lived in one house, and Wang and her husband were also home that morning. The grandfather discovered the baby crying in his crib and tried to soothe him with no luck. He handed him over to the grandmother, who noticed what appeared like glue in his ears and hair.
Wang's husband used a tissue to wipe the glue from the baby's ears, and the baby cried when anyone touched his ears, according to the search warrant.
The grandmother cut out the hardened substance from his hair with scissors and
called the parents to come home, at 10:30 a.m. "(The grandmother) suspected it was Wang who put the glue in (the baby's) ears.
"She said Wang didn't come from a 'good family,'" and her family expected her to have a son, according to police.
The warrant also said the father had found a needle stuck in his son's car seat with the pointed end out where the baby's head would rest, and that it had nicked him.
The infant's mother "in retrospect suspected someone had possibly tried to intentionally harm (him)," police said. The police officer also noted the two younger couples didn't get along well.
Wang in her statement to police denied putting glue in her nephew's ears or having a poor relationship with his parents, and said she was happy with her daughters, aged four years and 20 months at the time.
She also told police her husband had been the only one upstairs where the baby had been sleeping, where he had been playing video games. She said she hadn't known the baby was in the house until she heard him crying.
She also told police she had left the home at 10:30 a.m., before the other members took the baby to hospital.
Wang's husband turned over to police three small tubes of glue he found in a cabinet in the laundry room. One of the tubes, which came three to a package, had been opened and used and returned to the package. But he told police he didn't think that glue matched the glue found on his nephew.
Wang's husband said he had checked all the house's garbage cans but didn't find any glue.
