The girl, who police said was abused by her father, is treated at a clinic in a village in Jinsha county, Guizhou province, on Saturday. Her father has been detained. Provided to China Daily

Girl, 11, suffers scalp burns, needle jabs and extreme malnutrition

A father in Guizhou province has been accused of abusing his 11-year-old daughter for years in ways including burning the girl's scalp with boiling water, starvation and stitching her mouth with a fishing line.

Yang Shihai, 35, has confessed to beating his daughter, the oldest of his five children, said Fang Xuping, director of the police station of Shichang township, Jinsha county, on Monday.

Yang was detained on March 8, after police received two reports that day from Yang's father and a stranger who saw the injured girl in the village and accused Yang of abusing her, Fang said.

Fang said a villager told police in October that Yang burned the girl with boiling water. "We went to Yang's home, and we saw that a part of the girl's scalp was a little red, but it was not too serious," Fang said, adding that the father claimed he did so to kill lice in her hair. Police issued Yang a warning, Fang said.

Tang Tian, head of the township hospital, said the girl has bruises and scars on her face, knees and the top of her head is bald from scabs and other injuries.

"The girl is malnourished and weighs 16 kg, only half of the normal weight for girls her age, and she is also much shorter than her peers," Tang said. "She looked depressed when she was sent to our hospital on Wednesday, but now she is recovering well. When I asked her who caused her injuries, she said 'my dad did'."

Tang said the local government and the hospital have decided to treat the girl for free.

"We have sent her to a bigger hospital in Zunyi for further treatment, and her grandmother is accompanying her," he said.