A man in the Chinese city of Chongqing, along with his girlfriend, has been sentenced to death for intentional homicide for conspiring to kill his children from his previous marriage, Chinese media reported.

Urged by his girlfriend to kill his children

On Nov. 2, 2020, Zhang Bo threw his two-year-old daughter and one-year-old son out of a bedroom window from his flat on the 15th floor in the city's district of Nan'An.

Global Times further highlighted that he had been repeatedly urged to do so by his girlfriend, Ye Chengduan, who said that she and her family could not accept the fact that he had children.

The court, which sentenced the couple, was quoted as saying:

"The deeds of the two defendants have broken the bottom line of the law and morality, the motive of the crime was particularly despicable, and the means of crime was extremely cruel. The case has posed extremely bad impact to the society and should be severely punished in accordance with the law."

The children's mother, Chen Meilin, added that at the time of the crime, Zhang was on a video phone call with Ye, who slit her wrist.

This frightened Zhang, who then dropped the phone and proceeded to hurl his children out of the window.

He was subsequently seen crying downstairs over their remains.

Both children belong to his previous marriage which lasted from 2017-2019

According to the police, Zhang had married Chen in 2017.

She than gave birth to their daughter in 2018 and their son in 2019.

Speaking to Red Star News, Chen said that she did not know the "real" Zhang when she first met him.

Although she had initially been repulsed by his "thuggish" behaviour, she was eventually "deeply moved" by his fierce pursuit of her, as well as his "gentleness".

Chen also became pregnant with her first child within a few months of meeting Zhang and decided to start a family with him.

Chen added that Zhang's personality changed following the birth of their daughter and the opening of his own company, which was focused on loans.

Zhang also felt that Chen was not considerate to his needs when she asked him to return home early, as he thought he was focusing on work for the sake of the family.

The two began to squabble, and Zhang eventually decided to file for divorce from Chen in April 2019 after she gave birth to her son, who had fallen and was hospitalised.

Starting dating his girlfriend while undergoing divorce

He then started a relationship with Ye, and initially hid his marital history from her, Global Times further reported.

Both of them entered a relationship in August, with Ye eventually learning of his children at the end of the year.

The divorce between Zhang and Chen concluded on February 2020, with Zhang raising their son and Chen raising their daughter.

At the same, Zhang and Ye also began plotting to kill the children through an "accidental fall".

Eventually, Zhang carried out the deed on November 2020 by inviting his daughter over to his place on the pretext of buying clothes for her. He then threw her and her brother out of the window when Chen was not in the house.

Following the incident, Chen was further quoted by Red Star News as saying that Ye's family had offered 300,000 yuan (S$63,700) as compensation.

However, she refused the money, saying that her conscience would not allow her to do so as the deal would essentially be "buying" the lives of her two children, regardless of the amount.

Top collage via Red Star News