KUALA TERENGGANU: A couple have been arrested on suspicion of fatally abusing their two-year-old son.
Kuala Terengganu OCPD Asst Comm Azli Mohd Noor said police were alerted by the Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital on Aug 6.
He said the toddler, the younger of two siblings, was brought to the hospital unconscious at 1pm by his father and stepmother.
The couple claimed the boy had fallen on Aug 5, causing his forehead to swell, but that he played as usual after his father applied ice to reduce the swelling.
ACP Azli said the father found the boy weak and limp while preparing to feed him around noon the following day.
“The father claimed he massaged the boy’s neck to prevent a seizure, causing it to bruise,” he said in a statement yesterday, Bernama reported.
ACP Azli said the couple took the child to a health clinic, where he was referred to the hospital due to his critical condition.
The boy was pronounced dead at 2.05pm on Saturday.
A post-mortem revealed the cause of death was an intracranial haemorrhage (bleeding in the skull) due to blunt force trauma.
During interrogation, the suspects confessed to hitting the child with a clothes hanger, ACP Azli said.
The 27-year-old father and 30-year-old stepmother have been remanded for seven days starting yesterday.
“Police also seized a clothes hanger used in the incident.
“The suspects’ other son, aged three, has been placed under the care of the Social Welfare Department,” he added.
