2007 05: Couple nabbed for alleged child abuse

The Star online. News. Nation. Sunday May 13, 2007

KLANG: A couple have been nabbed for allegedly abusing a five-year-old boy who was found with wounds all over his body.

A police team from Temerloh, Pahang, picked up the couple at Taman Sri Selayang, Batu Caves, early Friday morning. The husband and wife were produced at the Temerloh magistrate’s court for a remand order later that day.

They were arrested following police reports made by social research institute Yayasan Strategic Sosial several days earlier.

A police spokesman said they were investigating if the couple had abused three other children.

The institute's assistant director V. Vanitha Ramani said the woman had come to her office last week with three children, aged nine, five and three, and a 10-month-old baby, to seek financial help. She added that although the mother looked well and was well dressed, the children were scruffy.

The mother claimed her children had fallen, but when Vanitha took the five-year-old boy aside and questioned him, she was shocked when she heard his story.

“The parents had allegedly burnt him with camphor, beaten him with sticks and threw him into a drain,” said Vanitha.

The boy has since been warded at Kuala Lumpur Hospital.