Mother nabbed for torturing daughter

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

The Tangerang police over the weekend arrested a woman, 35, a resident of Binong Permai housing complex, Tangerang, for allegedly torturing her five-year-old daughter using pliers, a bamboo stick, a belt and an iron bar.

The frequent torture caused severe wounds to several parts of the little girl's body, including her hands and genitals.

Curug police chief Adj. Insp. Suyono said the woman had been named a suspect after they had found sufficient evidence that she had abused the girl.

"To start with, the suspect denied having tortured her daughter. Later on, however, she admitted to having beaten the girl, and to pinching her genitals and pulling out her teeth using a pair of pliers," he said.

Suyono said that his officers had seized several articles, including the pliers, an iron bar, a bamboo stick, and a belt that were all allegedly used to torture the girl.

He said that the girl, who was still traumatized, had been placed with a policewoman in Binong, Tangerang.

Although neighbors had long suspected that the accused woman was frequently abusing her daughter, it was only last Thursday that they became convinced that the girl was being severely hurt.

Wahyudi, a neighbor who saw the girl running out of her house while crying in pain, asked her what had happened.

In agony, the girl could only show her burned hands, and pointed to her vagina and teeth.

Wahyudi then checked the girl's body and was surprised to find bruises all over her body.

He reported the matter to the police who arrived at the site minutes later to question the mother of the girl. Police searched the house and found the implements believed to have been used in the abuse.

"We have yet to find the chain used to tie the girl, as well as several other things," Suyono said.

Several neighbors said that they had often heard the young girl, the youngest of the family of five, scream out loudly, but they did not have the courage to intervene.

"(The accused woman) blames (the victim) as the reason why her husband left her two years ago. I hardly ever saw the girl playing outside like other children. In fact, I often heard her crying out in pain," Waryani, 43, who lives in front of the victim's house, told The Jakarta Post.

Ani, 36, who lives next door, said that it seemed like the girl was being tortured almost every day.

"Her grandmother, who also lives in the house, could do nothing. Thank God, the police have come at last to arrest her," he told the Post.

Suyono said that the police would charge the woman under Article 80 of Law No. 23/2002 on child abuse that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.