A nine-year-old boy was found passed out yesterday in a trash-strewn apartment in the northwestern province of Bursa. The child was locked in it for almost a year, reports Demiroren news agency (IAD), quoted by “Maritsa”.
“The boy’s fingernails reached 4 cm and his hair was very long. He even urinated and defecated inside the room for months,” yelled the stunned security officer who found him.
A warning was taped to the apartment door: “Don’t go inside! Or I’ll file a rape complaint in court!”
The boy, whose name is Jem, was hospitalized for preventive examinations and treatment. His condition is stable, but he is extremely emaciated, to the point of anorexia. The little boy, who is 138 cm tall, now weighs 17 kg.
According to the police, the apartment where Jem was found was rented by his aunt Kamuran A. But since the aunt did not pay the rent for a year, the landlord went to court.
With the permission of the court, security officers entered the house by breaking down the door and were shocked to see tons of garbage. But the biggest shock was when they found the little boy inside, curled up in a ball in a corner, unconscious and surrounded by an unbearable stench.
Kamouran A. accused her sister, Jem’s mother, Yasemin A., of refusing to look after and abandoning her son.
Yasemin A., who immediately came from the southern province of Antalya to Bursa, said her older sister was mentally ill and kidnapped the boy.
“I got divorced and moved to Antalya to work. My mother took care of Jem. She died three years ago and my sister became his guardian,” the mother said, adding, “She was hiding my son from me. Because of the pandemic, I couldn’t go to Bursa for two years to look for him.”
Kamuran A. was detained on the charge of “torture of a child”, and her 15-year-old daughter was placed under social protection.
Prof. Dr. Yozkan from the clinic where the found child is cared for said that the boy did not go to school and was completely illiterate. His general condition is moderately good. Cem Muhamet A. even said to the doctors: “I am happy to be here”.
The chief physician of the hospital Prof. Dr. Yildiray Gang added that after the long malnutrition, the return to normal regime will be gradual. The boy is given light food so that his body can get used to the food.
Jem is placed under social protection.
Dincer Yilmaz, a shopkeeper at a nearby supermarket, told the media: “Since we were neighbors with the woman, we only saw her come in and out in the evening. I never saw her come in in the morning. She came and left in the evening. She often carried two or three shopping bags. Sometimes he shopped with me.” She was a peculiar but well-dressed woman.
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