Police in the southernmost province of Ca Mau have rescued a 14-year-old boy who had been brutally tortured for months by his employers, a local couple, and filed charges against them.
Nguyen Hao Anh worked as a housekeeper and farm caretaker for Huynh Hoang Giang, 30, and his wife, Ma Ngoc Thom, 33, owners of the Minh Duc Shrimp Breeding Farm.
When the police rescued Anh April 28 after locals blew the whistle on the couple, he had broken teeth, burn marks, a broken nose, and a swollen face allegedly as a result of constant beatings and torture by Giang and Thom.
The police said Giang, who is in their custody, has confessed to the chilling details of their torture: pouring boiling water on the boy’s back, pressing a hot electric iron on his legs, stuffing hot coal in his mouth, and using pincers to break five of his teeth.
Thom has not been taken in because she is taking care of their 18-month-old baby.
The beatings began six months ago after the boy’s mother, Pham Thi Thoa informed the couple she wanted to take away her son to another place to work. But Giang and Thanh did not want to let go of their underage employee.
Anh recalled it started when he accidentally broke a basin while doing the laundry and Giang used a hammer to hit him.
“Since then, I was beaten every day,” the young boy said.
Giang often hit him on the ankles with a hammer if he did not work fast enough. Dr Ho Thanh Phong, who checked Anh after he was rescued, said the boy’s ankles are “seriously” swollen as a result.
Anh’s right eye is injured after being hit by Thom with a metal chopstick.
The doctor also found his nose broken in one place as a result of being hit with a lock by Giang.
People living nearby once reported to Truong Van Tam, the secretary of Phu Hiep hamlet, after witnessing the husband kick the young boy into the river before tying him up and leaving him to lie in the sun.
Tam said when he went to their house the boy limped away to hide and Giang and Thom claimed they were trying to “educate” the kid.
“Giang refused to sign a report we made on the case while his wife denied they tortured Anh,” he said.
“She claimed they beat the kid to educate him because Anh is the son of one of their relatives.
“The couple even said they could get the report torn up any time they wanted; it would only cost them a few tens of millions of dong.”
According to the police, the boy’s torture continued for six months because people living nearby did not dare report on the couple for fear of retaliation.
Nguyen Thanh Van, one of their neighbors, said: “Giang kept threatening to hire gangsters to destroy my house, so everyone here is afraid of that couple.”
The police said the couple had little contact with other people in the area and the only way to reach their house is by boat.
They often told Anh to hide when guests came over so that no one would know about his condition.
Anh, who was confined to the house, did not dare run away for fear it would affect his mother.
He told Tuoi Tre: “They said they will get the police to force my mother to repay them the advance they paid if I run away.”
Thoa had let her son work for the couple whom she had known for 15 years for a monthly wage of VND500,000 (US$26.49).
She had been abandoned by her husband when she was pregnant with Anh and his twin brother. She remarried but the family is struggling to get by and she does not have a stable job.
Anh and his twin brother were forced to drop out of school due to the family’s difficulties.
Nguyen Tuan Sinh, deputy director of the province Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said his agency would talk to Anh’s family to find out what plans it has for the boy when he is discharged from hospital.
The province social welfare center would bring him up until he reaches adulthood if the family cannot afford to take care of him, the official said.
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