Cape Town - A Retreat woman and her
boyfriend have been arrested for allegedly beating her son to a pulp on Christmas Eve.
Neighbours say the nine-year-old boy from Albertus Court was looking forward to Christmas but was hospitalised instead.
The woman who rescued the boy says while at a neighbour’s house, they told her about the boy who was badly beaten.
“I went downstairs and looked for this boy they said was beaten,” she says.
“When I saw him, I was shocked. I immediately took him to the police station and we went to the day hospital.”
She says the child did not want to say anything at first, but
eventually spilled the beans.
Playing
“He said he was playing outside on ou Krismis (Christmas Eve) and he was called in,” the angry woman says.
“They live at the back of someone’s yard. When he got in, his mother’s boyfriend started hitting him in the face with a belt buckle and his mother hit him with her fist in his face.”
The boy told her he escaped after the beating, which left him with black and blue bruises on the face.
“They wanted to keep him locked up so no one could see him, but he went to the toilet in the main house and got away.”
The boy has been taken to a place of safety.
Police spokesperson, Colonel André Traut , confirmed that the mother and her boyfriend were arrested for beating up the child.
“This office can confirm that a 30-year-old female and a 40-year-old male were arrested on Thursday on a charge of assault following an incident on Tuesday at their residence where the female’s child was assaulted.”
The pair appeared at Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Friday where they failed to make bail.
They are expected back in court on Thursday.