Suspected child abuse death to be treated as murder, Hong Kong police say
Officers also arrest victim’s step-grandmother after young girl died on Saturday
The step-grandmother of a five-year-old girl who died in Hong Kong on Saturday was arrested on Sunday, and it is understood police will now treat the case as a murder investigation.
It followed the arrest on Saturday of the victim’s father, 26, and stepmother, 27, for suspected child abuse. All three were detained on Sunday night, and a police source said the couple were likely to be charged with murder on Monday morning.
“We suspect that the grandmother was also involved in the child abuse. But it is unclear if she was linked to the death of the girl,” the source said. “She has been arrested on suspected child abuse.”
Yvonne Siu Lai-shan, principal of Hing Tak School in Tuen Mun, said the girl’s eight-year-old brother studying in the school had since November shown “unusual signs”.