VietNamNet Bridge - A stepfather, Nguyen Nhan Tu, 29, in HCM City has been arrested for beating his 3-year-old stepchild to such an extent that his liver and testis were broken.



At the police station of Go Vap district, Tu confessed that he was very angry to see his stepchild dirty his pants when he arrived home on the evening of May 29. Tu kicked the boy’s stomach. However, wounds on the child’s body proved that Tu cruelly abused the boy.

Some local people said they had seen Tu beat the child’s knees by a pestle in front of his mother, Ms. Lu Thi Men.

Some neighbors brought the child to hospital. Doctor Vo Quoc Bao of the Children’s Hospital 2 said that the boy was hospitalized on June 3, in critical state. His testicles were bruised, his liver was broken, with a 6cm long, 3cm deep crack, internal bleeding and there were many contusions on his body and his face.

The doctor added when the child was brought to hospital, he was in serious shock. Doctors had to perform an urgent surgery to stitch his liver and to suck out 100ml of blood in his stomach. The child will have to stay in the hospital for two weeks.

The child’s mother said that she worked for a restaurant until midnight so she did not know that her son was beaten by her husband.

“Hoang Anh (the boy) is my stepson. When I was pregnant, his father went away. I told him that his son was in hospital but he refused to visit him and did not accept him as his son,” the woman said.



She added that she had to give the boy to a relative for taking care, with VND1 million ($50) per month. She had just taken the boy home for only two weeks before the incident occurred.

The woman said when the boy leaves the hospital, she would send him to someone who is good-hearted because she cannot afford to bring him up.

However, some local officials said that it is better to send the kid to an orphanage because his mother does not have a stable job and to prevent him from being assaulted by his stepfather.

The 3-year-old boy has not had a birth certificate yet.

Local authorities said that the stepfather is jobless and has two previous convictions related to robbery and drug possession.

Thanh Huyen