According to police, the child, who has only been identified as "Natasha", was so neglected that she had barely developed a human vocabulary, communicating instead through animal noises.
Although she lived with her father, grandparents and other relatives, Natasha was essentially treated like one of a large number of dogs and cats that shared a small flat in the isolated city of Chita.
Welfare officers, who were led to the flat by concerned neighbours, have placed Natasha in an orphanage. Although malnourished and small for her age, she appeared to be relatively healthy considering her ordeal, a police spokesman was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
He said the police were looking for the girl's parents, who are believed to be divorced.
Welfare organisations say that child abuse in Russia is worsening, particularly in the Far East where traditional problems such as alcoholism and unemployment are magnified.
Last week a woman was sentenced to three-years probation by a court in Chita after her baby died of alcohol poisoning. Yelena Sinitsyna admitted to drinking a pint of pure ethanol before breast feeding her four-month-old son.
The consumption of ethanol and alcoholic byproducts such as boot polish, collectively known as "samogon" in Russia, remains common in many parts of the country. Alcohol dependence is believed to be the main cause of low male life expectancy in Russia, which, at just 58, is among the lowest in the world outside Africa.
Activists say they are concerned that domestic abuse could become an even more serious problem as a growing number of Russians lose their jobs.
In the midst of Russia's worst economic crisis in a decade, unemployment has soared above 10 per cent, according to figures released this week which show that over 11 million people are now out of work.
4 comments:
Kes macam ni pun ada....?
Awwh..so pitiful! Very sad. The parents and relatives must be mad!
How the face of a child inspires evil in the hearts of men is beyond my most arduous reckoning.
marko,
ada...banyak...ada one case I was reading...they sold the kid for sexual services dari toddler, bila dah jumpa, she became so screwed up...she assaulted everyone, sexually/propositioned everyone, police, budak, binatang pun dia buse etc2...last2 masuk prison. that one made me cry...the mum sold her initially for drugs, and they found her at 6 years old.
mamasita,
sedih kan? the collective inhumanity tu..punya ramai relatives boleh ignore what was going on for years!
Hi Jeffrey,
Doesn't she have such a lovely, innocent face? I think these people are just inhumane...or lost their humanity through their own sufferings and lack of connection which their Maker...it seems many such cases in Russia and the US (esp the lower income groups).
I read of one case in the US where the mum didn't clean the house and the kids lived in maggot and roach infested conditions...imagine soiled diapers stacked up IN the room, excrement of dogs and humans on the walls...and her girl, locked away in a tiny room for years amongst the filth.
Scary...
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