Photo/Illutration The headquarters of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A mother and her common-law husband were arrested in Tokyo on Nov. 11 after a malnourished girl under their care was found covered with bruises and scars and could barely walk.

The couple, who live in a ward in Tokyo, are accused of abandoning their responsibility as guardians of the girl, who is of elementary school age.

They were arrested earlier on suspicion of assaulting the woman’s two other children, who are younger than junior high school age.

All three children were taken into protective custody in August by a child consultation center.

The names of the suspects have not been released to protect the privacy of the victims, according to investigative sources.

The woman is in her 30s and the husband is in his 20s, the sources said.

According to the police investigation, the girl was given only one meal a day and had lost about 10 kilograms since spring.

Investigative sources said the child consultation center found bruises and scars in about a dozen places on the girl’s face and body. Police are also looking for the cause of a broken bone.

The sources said all three children under the couple’s care were not attending school.

A police search of their home found a camera normally used to monitor pets when the owners are away. The couple told police they used the camera to keep an eye on the children, the sources said.

Police said the recording showed the couple assaulting the children.

Investigators also found exchanges on the mobile phones of the couple that indicated they were not giving food to the girl.

In early August, the woman asked a friend to look after the girl for a few days. The mother said she had taken the daughter to a hospital but that her health was not improving.

However, sources said the couple told police they did not take the girl to a doctor because they feared their abuse of the child would be discovered.

When the girl was in the home of the mother’s friend, an employee of a center providing after-school care for children happened to visit. The worker saw the seriously emaciated child and reported the case to the child consultation center.

A neighbor said she once saw a naked young child sitting in front of the home of the couple.

Another neighbor said she saw the couple getting into a taxi with the children in the middle of the day and thought it strange that the children were not attending school.

(This article was written by Shomei Nagatsuma, Hiromichi Fujita and Shun Yoshimura.)

Related News