Patriarchal parents suspected of beating 5-year-old daughter to death

父權制父母疑似虐死5歲女童

Taiwanese couple arrested after 5-year-old daughter dies after suffering repeated beatings and malnutrition


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A Taoyuan couple has been arrested yesterday (Dec. 18) after the suspicious death of their 5-year-old daughter, who was already deceased and showed signs of physical abuse and malnutrition when they brought her to the hospital.

According to a police investigation, the night before her death, the father, surnamed Huang (黃), lost his temper when his daughter started crying and grabbed a hanger and started beating her as well as kicking her in the stomach. The next day, she felt dizzy, and after her mother gave her something to eat, she lost consciousness.

At 1 p.m., the couple took the girl for treatment at a hospital in Taoyuan on Sunday (Dec. 17), but she showed no signs of life and was soon declared dead. Though the parents were initially allowed to return home, because of suspicious injuries to the little girl's frail body and signs of malnutrition, both parents were taken into police custody on suspicion of child abuse on Monday.

In an interview with CNA, Deputy Director of Taoyuan's Tongyan Police Station Yang Chin-chi (楊進基) said that because doctors discovered both fresh injuries and scars from previous trauma on the girl's body, police took the couple into custody for questioning. The injuries included swelling on her forehead and well as bruises on her chest, abdomen, and ribs, and she had scars from multiple blows to the back of her head.

According to police, the father is 36-year-old truck driver, while the mother, surnamed Liao (廖) is 34 years of age and they have three children. In addition to the daughter, they have two sons that are 15 and 6 years old, respectively.

The girl was found to only weigh 9 kilograms and was 82 centimeters in height. Chang Chien-chih (張建智), Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Medicine and Min Sheng General Hospital told UDN that a normal 5-year-old girl should weigh about 20 kilos and be about 110 centimeters tall. "A weight of only 9 kilos at age 5 is very light. This is the equivalent to a one-year-old and indicates a severe lack of nutrition," said Chang.

From an initial examination of the two boys, neither showed signs of the same types of injuries the girl had suffered. After the police concluded their preliminary investigation, the social services bureau of Taoyuan determined that the two boys were at risk of abuse and were taken into protective care by social workers.


Father (right) being taken into police custody. (CNA image)