Woman pleads not guilty to abuse charges after death of Kevin Chen’s baby

Yixia Chen appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday.
Photo: RNZ / Nate MacKinnon

A 37-year-old woman has denied charges of criminal contempt and possession of drug paraphernalia following the death of a young child in north Canterbury last year.

Yixia Chen appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday before Judge Michael Crosby.

She was granted a temporary withholding of her name after her first court dates in early December, but that has now lapsed.

Chen pleaded not guilty to two counts of neglect and possession of a glass pipe containing methamphetamine.

She was released on bail ahead of a scheduled hearing on March 17.

Police were called to an address in Oxford, in the Waimakariri district, on the afternoon of August 5, 2024, after a child, Kevin Chen, had died.

Police told RNZ in November that the death was not being treated as suspicious.

A month later, a police spokesman confirmed that baby Kevin’s death remained “unexplained”.

Chen was charged on December 3.

“A scene and post-mortem examination has been completed and further investigation has led police to lay charges of abuse of a child under the age of 18,” a police spokesman said at the time.

Court documents showed police alleged negligence occurred between May 4 and the date of the infant’s death.

Failure to provide basic care that could lead to death is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison.

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