A local man was arrested on March 4 for beating his daughter for playing with, and deleting messages on his smartphone the previous night, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a regular press conference on Friday.
The 49-year-old local jobless suspect is surnamed Lei. The victim is a cross-border pupil who lives with her father and stepmother in Zhuhai. Lei takes her every day to a kindergarten in the northern district.
According to Ho, the girl was accompanied by an employee of the kindergarten to the public Conde de S. Januário Hospital Centre for treatment on March 4. As the doctor suspected that her injuries were due to domestic violence, the hospital staff notified the Judiciary Police to follow up. PJ officers took the girl and her father to a police station for questioning.
Ho said the girl told the police that on the night of March 3, her father used a bamboo stick to hit her across palm and thigh for playing with his smartphone without his consent and deleting some of his chat messages. She told the police that her father slapped her across the face on February 25 for losing her smartphone when crossing the Macau-Zhuhai checkpoint.
According to a medical examination, the girl had soft tissue injuries on the right side of her face, right middle finger and right calf, and needed three days to recover from the injuries. Lei admitted to beating his daughter. He said that he “physically punished” her over discipline issues, Ho said.
Lei has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a domestic violence charge, according to Ho.
