PETALING JAYA, Dec 3 — A foreign girl barely five years’ old died 30 minutes after arriving weak and barely conscious at a hospital here with signs of extensive physical abuse.
The child, an Indonesian national aged four years and nine months, died at Hospital Sungai Buloh at 4.30pm yesterday.
Petaling Jaya police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zani Che Din said doctors who attended to her found multiple wounds and bruises on her body, and suspected abuse as the probable cause of death.
“A thorough post mortem is being carried out on her to determine what the actual cause of death was,” he said.
Mohd Zani said a doctor and a babysitter who brought the toddler to the hospital both lodged police reports following her death.
An immediate neighbour also lodged another report prior to the girl’s death, he added.
The neighbour allegedly heard a child screaming in pain from the unit next door at an apartment block along Jalan PJS8/14, followed by adults yelling as though to silence the child.
“The neighbour said he had seen the girl walk around the apartment blocks with a limp prior to this, while several other neighbours had told him they saw bruises on her body.
“It was supposedly not unusual for him to hear a child screaming in pain from abuse throughout the day,” Mohd Zani explained.
The same neighbour also accused the babysitter who brought child to hospital of abusing her, Mohd Zaini added when saying that investigators would verify the claims.
Police officers had rushed to the girl’s home upon receiving the report, but discovered that she had already been sent to a hospital, he continued.
The family of five — three men and two women in their 20s to 50s — were detained and subsequently remanded until Wednesday.
Mohd Zani said police are also investigating the victim’s relations to the family and whether she was a adopted or orphaned.
The case is being investigated under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 that covers the physical or emotional abuse of a child.
