Spending over 1,000 VND, little girl was brutally tortured by stepmother

Just because she accidentally spent 1000 VND on a cake and her stepmother asked her to return it, the little girl was pushed headfirst into the toilet and beaten so savagely that she had to be hospitalized.

Defendant Truong Thi Thuy Ai (born in 1981, in Cam An hamlet, Cam Giang commune, Go Dau district, Tay Ninh) was married once and had a daughter born in 2005. In 2014, she met and married Nguyen Van Soi, born in 1979, from Long An province, who is also a widower and has a daughter born in 2008, Nguyen Thi Kha Ai.

When his wife died, Mr. Soi's daughter was only 6 months old and had to be sent to his grandparents in Phuoc Dong commune, Can Duoc district (Long An) to help raise her. When he married Ms. Thuy Ai, Mr. Soi brought his child from Long An to his wife's house in Tay Ninh to live with her. In October 2015, the couple gave birth to a baby boy. Mr. Soi worked as a hired worker and earned 3 million VND per month, Ms. Thuy Ai stayed home to do housework and take care of the children. The family of 5 had a difficult life and the unfortunate incident happened.

On March 21, 2016, Thuy Ai gave her husband's stepchild, Kha Ai, 5,000 VND to go to school, and told her to give 2,000 VND to her sister Hai (Thuy Ai's stepchild), 2,000 VND to Kha Ai, and to bring the remaining 1,000 VND to her stepmother at noon. When her child came home from school, Thuy Ai asked her about the remaining 1,000 VND, and Kha Ai said she had bought cakes and eaten them all.

Angry, she dragged her stepchild into the house, forced him to lie face down on the bed, then went out and cut a bamboo branch the size of a thumb, and beat him repeatedly on his buttocks, legs, back, and shoulders. When the whip broke, she went out to the garden and cut another bamboo branch to beat him again. Seeing her stepchild cry too much, she used her hands to pinch Kha Ai all over, dragged him into the toilet, pressed his head down, and poured water on him to stop him from crying.

The next day in class, seeing little Kha Ai just standing, the homeroom teacher Nguyen Thi Thuy Tien asked and she said that her stepmother beat her so badly that her butt was swollen and she could not sit. Lifting her clothes, the teacher saw that her whole body was bruised and swollen, so she immediately took her to Cam Giang Commune Police to make a report, then took her to Go Dau District Hospital for emergency treatment.

After being summoned by the police, Thuy Ai herself reported the previous incident at the end of January 2016, Kha Ai was also brutally beaten by her stepmother for spending more money than allowed. The reason was that in the morning, Mr. Soi gave his daughter 50,000 VND, told the two sisters to spend 5,000 VND each for breakfast, and to bring the remaining money home to give to her mother. Kha Ai spent 3,000 VND more than allowed, when she returned home she only had 37,000 VND left to give to her stepmother.

Angry, Thuy Ai forced the child to lie face down on the bed, cut a mai branch to make a whip, and whipped her stepchild repeatedly. When Mr. Soi came home from work, he saw this and quietly went to buy medicine to apply to the child.

According to the testimony of the defendant Truong Thi Thuy Ai in court, she rarely beat her own child, while constantly beating her stepchild. Between mid-2014 and March 2016, Kha Ai was beaten 15 times. People attending the trial expressed their dissatisfaction with Nguyen Van Soi when he said he did not stop his wife from beating their child, but only knew how to buy medicine for their child to take. It is also possible that due to the mentality of "being a son-in-law living on behalf of his wife", he did not dare to defend his child, thereby putting his daughter at risk of continuous abuse.

After baby Kha Ai was taken to the emergency room at Go Dau District Hospital, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the District Women's Union, the District Youth Union and a number of other agencies organized a donation of 12,145,000 VND, opened a savings book for baby Nguyen Thi Kha Ai and directly handed it over to her grandmother, Truong Thi Lan, residing in Hamlet 7, Phuoc Dong Commune, Can Duoc District, Long An, to manage and raise her.

It is also sad that during the week Kha Ai was in the hospital, Truong Thi Thuy Ai did not visit or take care of her husband's child even once, and the reason she gave was "she was too embarrassed to come".

At the mobile trial, the People’s Court of Go Dau district sentenced the defendant to 3 years in prison for “Intentionally causing injury and harm to the health of children”. Nguyen Van Soi, the representative of the victim, did not request compensation, but only asked for a reduced sentence for his wife so that they could raise their child together.

According to ANTĐ