Strangers rescue abused children from father (Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China)

The father, identified only as YANG, has had "possession" of his two children since the mother "went missing" two years ago. They were brutally abused. Dad freely admits that the wife "couldn't stand my beating her," and that's why (allegedly) she wasn't around anymore. Strangers actually broke into the room where the children were living in order to rescue them after getting some sort of tip-off phone call.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=418884&type=National

Strangers rescue abused children
Created: 2009-11-9 1:47:59, Updated: 2009-11-9 2:36:40
Author:Li Xinran

A SISTER and brother have been rescued by two strangers in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, after enduring three years of domestic violence from their father.

The two children, aged six and five, were found with countless wounds and cuts on their faces and around their bodies on Saturday when two people broke into their room in an attempt to save them, Qianjiang Evening News reported yesterday.

A man who awoke next to the girl on a bed told the two that he was their father and responsible for the situation, the newspaper said.

"They're mine and I've beaten them for three years," the man was quoted as saying. "I beat them, which means I love them," he added.

The two unnamed saviors called police when they found the naked boy with blood stains on the wall and floor.

They told the newspaper that they had received a phone call a few days earlier saying that two children in a low-rental apartment in Jiangbei District were being beaten by their father every day.

Missing wife

The father surnamed Yang said his son was only five years old but had a bad memory and learning difficulties, which made him deserve a thrashing, according to the newspaper.

Neighbors told the newspaper that the father was a painter from Jiangxi Province.

Yang looked kind but had few words to say, they said. But the two children had never been seen outside the house, they added. His wife went missing about two years ago.

"She couldn't stand my beating her," Yang told the newspaper.

Police sent the two children to hospital for examination.

Yang has been sent to a psychiatric hospital for psychological counseling and showed no signs of mental disease, police said.

The boy didn't cry when he received stitches for the cuts on his face.

His sister told police that her father had stabbed her brother with a knife on his back and feet on the morning they were rescued, and that the children had had nothing to eat for three days.

A neighbor fed them bread and milk after they were rescued.

The children are now safe and have been taken to an orphanage in Jiangbei, said one of their rescuers.