A SIX-year-old girl was neglected so severely she didn’t know how to speak and was fed a liquids-only diet, officials said.
Cops in Brazil found the “dazzled” girl who had allegedly spent her entire life locked in one filthy room after receiving a tip off.
ReproductionThis heartbreaking photo shows the filthy room the girl was allegedly locked inside[/caption]
Disclosure / civil policeHer parents were arrested after cops made the discovery[/caption]
GettyThe six-year-old was kept inside a house in Sorocaba, Brazil[/caption]
She was removed from her parents’ care and they were arrested, reports Brazilian news outlet Universo Online.
Officers were sent round to the house in the city of Sorocaba, Sao Paulo state, to conduct a welfare check.
What they found was incredibly disturbing.
The girl was locked in a dark, dingy room – where she had apparently spent her entire life.
A heartbreaking photo shows a stained wall bearing the impression of the girl’s back, and a single glum-looking teddy bear.
She had never been to school, cops found out, and had also been deprived of any vaccinations.
Most shockingly, however, she had never learned how to talk.
Child protection counsellor Ligia Guerra said: “The girl was very apathetic and dazzled by everything.”
She said the girl’s hair was “tangled” and looked like it had “never been washed”.
Guerra said the child had not eaten anything that day – and cops confirmed she had been raised on a diet of only liquids.
She is said to have communicated with counsellors and police officers only through unorthodox sounds.
After being rescued from the house of horrors, the girl was sent to hospital for a medical examination and then moved to a children’s home.
Her parents were arrested and charged with unlawful detention, and remain in police custody.
According to police chief Renata Zanin, the mum “cannot grasp the gravity of the situation”.
She added that the mum “gave evasive answers” when interrogated and “showed no remorse whatsoever”.
The girl’s ordeal follows a similar case involving three neglected siblings in Spain.
Three boys were found by cops while parents Christian Steffen, 53, and his wife Melissa Ann Steffen, 48, were arrested on suspicion of child abuse.
The young German boys, two eight-year-old twins and one 10-year-old, were said to have been found in horrific conditions at the property.
Each of them had allegedly been forced to wear three face masks and wear nappies – and made to sleep in caged beds, a source close to the investigation revealed.
Pictures from inside the house in Oviedo showed the boys’ bed frames covered in horrifying drawings while they were trapped inside blacked out rooms devoid of any sunlight.