The mother, father and older twin sisters of a seven-year-old girl found with gangrene, ulcers and injuries all over her body have been arrested for child abuse.
The mainland-born girl has been in intensive care since mid-July after she was taken to Yan Chai Hospital near the family’s Tsuen Wan flat by her mother, who said the child slipped in the bath.
“There was gangrene on her thighs, buttocks and feet. Skin ulcers were all over her body,” a source told the SCMP.
The girl is also said to have been suffering from muscle atrophy and malnutrition, and weighed less than 15 kilograms, compared to the usual 20 kilograms for a girl of her age.
Hong Kong’s Social Welfare Department and the police became involved when the girl was moved to the intensive care unit at Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung. She is said to have been unresponsive since she was admitted.
The girl’s mother, 40, father, 50, and twin sisters, 15, have all been arrested for child abuse in the past week. The two sisters were released on bail while the parents are still being questioned. The girl’s brother has reportedly not been implicated in the case.
The family is thought to have moved to Hong Kong to live with the mother’s second husband, a Hongkonger.
“The mother admitted she had applied physical punishment with a cane” in one particular incident, the source said. “One of her twin sisters also said she [the seven-year-old girl] was naughty, always running around.”
Photo: Princess Margaret Hospital, Wikimedia Commons
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