GEORGE TOWN: Police have nabbed three adults to assist in investigations into the alleged physical abuse of an 11-year-old girl.
Photographs and video of the alleged abuse have gone viral after they were posted last night.
Seberang Prai Tengah district police chief ACP Nik Ros Azhan Nik Ab Hamid said the suspects arrested were the stepmother aged 38, a relative and the victim’s 36-year-old father.
Both guardians have a police record respectively for theft and narcotics use.
The case came to light when a neighbour at the Ampang Jajar apartments in Butterworth could not bear the girl’s screams and lodged a report with the police and the Malaysian Tamilar Kural – a nongovernmental organisation here.
The girl stopped going to school in 2019.
Police expect to remand the adults soon while the victim was placed under the care of the Seberang Jaya Hospital and welfare authorities.
Her eyes were visibly swollen and she was believed to have been beaten up with a crash helmet, a clothes hanger and sticks.
Tamilar Kural president David Marshel told journalists that his organisation received a distress call from the neighbour at about 10am on Sunday.
Within hours, they arrived to rescue the girl, who was home alone after the neighbour snapped photographs of the victim’s face and forwarded it.
The girl has three other siblings and the welfare authorities are seeking temporary custody of the children from the couple.
Marshel also urged those posting such news on social media to protect the victim’s identity as she was considered a minor and deserves help from society.
Nik Ros Azhan later said that the girl will also undergo test to determine if she had suffered any internal injuries.
