SUNGAI PETANI: The Magistrate’s Court here today ordered for a five-year-old girl, who was abused by her mother’s boyfriend in the Paya Nahu Flats tragedy last year, to be placed under the Welfare Department’s care for the next three years.

Magistrate Adibah Husna Zainal Abidin issued the order this morning after a one-month temporary custody of the child given to the department, ended today.

The girl, who was previously placed at Taman Sinar Harapan in Jitra, would now be moved to the Taman Bakti shelter home in Penang.

Clad in a pink T-shirt, the girl was seen hugging and talking with her maternal grandmother who was present for the hearing.

The girl was discharged from the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital here on Dec 21, where she had been warded since Nov 24 for multiple injuries to her face and body.

It was reported that the girl’s mother had sought help from a neighbour when the girl fell unconscious after being abused by the woman’s boyfriend.

A police team which rushed to the flats upon being alerted by the neighbour, found the victim’s two-year-old brother dead, his decomposing body placed in a cooler box in the flat.

Following the incident, the children’s mother’s boyfriend was charged with the murder of the boy, Muhammad Qhairullah Abd Hadi, on Dec 6.-nst