Butterworh - DREADFUL. That was the word used by policemen when they saved a malnourished Year One pupil in "solitary confinement" in a house in Sungai Dua, here. 

Police officers made the discovery on Thursday after they broke a padlock at the front door and found a 7-year-old girl locked up in one of the rooms inside the house.

The house was in total darkness, as the electricity supply had been cut off. And the sight of the girl shocked the raiding party. 

With crew-cut hair and a body that was skin and bones, she begged the police officers for food. There were bruises on her body. The smell inside the room was unbearable as she had relieved herself in a corner. 

North Seberang Prai police chief Assistant Commissioner Abdul Rahman Ibrahim said the girl had been locked in the house by her father, who lived across the street. 

"Her father and four siblings live in a house across from the kampung houses. I have never seen anything so cruel." 

Rahman said the girl's teacher had lodged a police report on Thursday after the girl had been absent for a few days. 

"Strangely, her father had gone to the school the next day to collect the 1Malaysia aid."

"The teacher felt something was amiss and lodged a police report." 

The girl's 34-year-old father has been remanded until Monday. 

The girl is now in the custody of the Welfare Department. She was sent to Seberang Jaya Hospital for a medical check-up and is reported to be in stable condition.

The case is being investigated under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 for abuse. 

Source: New Straits Times