Parents punish 'naughty' girl with burns, nails
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Police in southwest China's Guizhou Province have detained a couple for burning their 6-year-old daughter with red-hot tongs and using other forms of torture-like discipline to correct her "bad behavior."
Zhang Zhou, the father, and mother Luo Mei confessed they also routinely ordered the girl to kneel on a board full of nails and lashed her with wires during years of abuse, police said.
Neighbors said the parents even punched a hole in one of the girl's ears and inserted yarn so they could pull her to the torture sessions, according to Guizhou Metropolis Daily.
The newspaper published photos of the child that showed horrific wounds on her buttocks, legs and face.
Police in Bijie City are holding Zhang and Luo for five days while they investigate the case, according to newspaper.
The parents said they beat their daughter because she was very naughty and needed to be educated. Zhang and Luo confessed they burned the child when she refused to do her homework and talked back when she was told to close a door.
The girl's teachers, however, said the child was a good student and almost always got top marks for her homework.
The girl is the second daughter of the family. It was not known how the other girl was treated. The family recently moved back to Bijie from jobs in Guangdong Province.
The family's neighbors told the newspaper they were outraged by the parents' cruelty, which included making the girl sleep on the floor. Bruises and scars were evident on the girl's face ever since she enrolled in elementary school, according to a class advisor surnamed Xu. Xu said the girl told her the wounds were from accidental falls.
The girl's teacher, surnamed Li, called police and the local women's union on October 29 when the girl said she had been burned by her parents.
Li said she didn't believe the girl was telling the truth until she asked her to lower her pants, and the child said it was too painful as the fabric had stuck to her wounds.
The teacher said witnesses were shocked when they saw the child's bloody buttocks in the clinic where she was treated. They also observed numerous scars and wounds and the girl had a high fever.
The family's former landlady said she canceled the rental contract to make the family leave because she can not stand the child's screaming at nights. She said she saw the father beat the girl with a large rod.
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