A rural woman from the central Henan Province has pleaded guilty to poisoning her twin sons, both suffering from cerebral palsy, The Beijing News reported yesterday.

The report said before the 46-year-old Wu Wenying went on trial, about 3,000 people from Fangzhuang village had signed a five-page petition, asking the judge to show leniency in her case.

They said Wu had suffered a lot trying to raise the twins for 20 years with just the income from her husband Gao Songzhong, who earned 2,400 yuan (US$395.28) a month.

They claimed she was also a victim of repeated family abuse. “We are willing to go to court if it helps her,” a villager said. But Gao said nobody from his village attended the hearing which started on November 20.

“My sons have gone, but I was still beaten. I expect nothing,” Wu told the Luyi County People’s Court.

It was reported that when she was pregnant, she drank pesticide after another round of physical abuse by Gao.

She survived and delivered the twins who were born with cerebral palsy, the newspaper reported.

Wu told police during interrogation that she did not want to stay with her husband.

“He kept saying the two sons are useless and why do I have to take care of them? They are a burden to our younger children,” Wu said.

The couple also have another son and a daughter.

Wu claimed Gao never helped her in looking after the twins, and even suspected that he had a mistress because she had heard him secretly talking to a woman on the phone.

She said her husband did not even bother to get the residency registered for the twin sons, thus denying them the government allowances for destitute families.

They had no idea of any supportive projects and neither did the villagers report their conditions to the higher authorities.

In the last seven or eight years, they quarreled more often and Wu’s brother said at one time Gao even chased her to his house to beat her up, the newspaper reported.

On February 10 this year, the couple had another fierce quarrel. Gao kicked the chairs and the twins were shaken by Gao’s yelling. After Gao left home, the eldest of the twin brothers, Guohui, apparently told Wu: “Mother, give me pesticide.”

Wu did not utter a word.

Later her young son and daughter returned home from school to have supper. After they were done, Guohui again insisted on the pesticide.

“I don’t want to be a burden on you,” he said.

Wu put a bottle of pesticide in front of him. The bottle contained half gram of highly-toxic phorate, used to spray on cotton and wheat fields.

It was her neighbor who found the twins, lying on chairs and their lips turned blue and purple. Doctors later declared them dead.

No one reported the matter to police but she surrendered days later. She was arrested for homicide.

“I plead guilty. I felt sorry for my sons,” Wu told the court.