The girl, who police said was abused by her father, is treated at a clinic in a village in Jinsha county, Guizhou province, on Saturday. Her father has been detained. Provided to China Daily

Girl, 11, suffers scalp burns, needle jabs and extreme malnutrition

A father in Guizhou province has been accused of abusing his 11-year-old daughter for years in ways including burning the girl's scalp with boiling water, starvation and stitching her mouth with a fishing line.

Yang Shihai, 35, has confessed to beating his daughter, the oldest of his five children, said Fang Xuping, director of the police station of Shichang township, Jinsha county, on Monday.

Yang was detained on March 8, after police received two reports that day from Yang's father and a stranger who saw the injured girl in the village and accused Yang of abusing her, Fang said.

Fang said a villager told police in October that Yang burned the girl with boiling water. "We went to Yang's home, and we saw that a part of the girl's scalp was a little red, but it was not too serious," Fang said, adding that the father claimed he did so to kill lice in her hair. Police issued Yang a warning, Fang said.

Tang Tian, head of the township hospital, said the girl has bruises and scars on her face, knees and the top of her head is bald from scabs and other injuries.

"The girl is malnourished and weighs 16 kg, only half of the normal weight for girls her age, and she is also much shorter than her peers," Tang said. "She looked depressed when she was sent to our hospital on Wednesday, but now she is recovering well. When I asked her who caused her injuries, she said 'my dad did'."

Tang said the local government and the hospital have decided to treat the girl for free.

"We have sent her to a bigger hospital in Zunyi for further treatment, and her grandmother is accompanying her," he said.

The girl's 72-year-old grandmother, who refused to be identified, said the girl has been beaten often by her father since she was 5. He would abuse her if he believed "she was not disciplined on occasions such as not responding when he called her", the grandmother said.

She said her son punished her granddaughter in many different ways, including jabbing her arms and fingers with a needle, hurting her lips with fishing line, starvation and asking her to kneel on broken glass.

If anyone tried to stop the abuse, Yang would attack him or her too, the grandmother added.

Gao Dongmei, director of the township's women's federation, said she made a home visit to Yang's wife, Xiong Yuhui, a primary school graduate, on Thursday.

"She said she could do nothing to stop her husband from beating their daughter and she had no idea where she could ask for help," Gao said.

Xiong could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Luo Qian, deputy chief of the township, said local officials have donated more than 20,000 yuan ($3,200) for the girl's medical treatment.

"It will cost a lot of money to heal her scalp burns so we also opened an account for public donations," he said.

A woman visited the girl at the hospital and shared photos of her with friends. The photos and the girl's story quickly spread on Sina Weibo, a popular micro-blogging platform, on Saturday.

Zhao Kai in Guiyang contributed to this story.