A local man beat his six-year-old daughter earlier this month after he got angry because she had fought with her younger brother at home, a Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson announced during a regular press conference on Friday.
Despite the man’s arrest early this month, the police merely transferred the case file but not the suspect to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) last week for further investigation after having decided to classify the case as causing bodily harm rather than domestic violence.
The spokesperson identified the man as a 34-year-old surnamed Wong who told the police that he is a businessman.
Wong lives with his wife and their two children in a flat in Taipa. The children are normally looked after by Wong while his wife goes out to work, according to the spokesperson.
On May 5, the spokesperson said, when Wong’s wife returned home after work, she saw wounds on her daughter’s forearms.
The woman asked her husband what had happened, and he admitted that he had resorted to “physically punishing” their daughter after he became angry about her fighting with her younger brother, the spokesperson said.
Afterwards, the spokesperson said, the woman took her daughter to the hospital for treatment. The hospital reported the case to the police after the woman had told doctors what had happened to her daughter.
A medical examination confirmed that the girl had sustained abrasions and contusions on her forearms, the spokesperson said.
PJ officers went to the family’s home later that day and arrested Wong. Under questioning by the police, Wong admitted that he had beaten his daughter.
After further investigation, the spokesperson, PJ officers concluded that Wong resorted to the “corporal punishment” of his daughter just once, because of which they decided to classify the case as causing bodily harm instead of domestic violence, and transferred the case file to the Public Prosecutions Office.
