Preah Vihear Provincial Court charged a woman yesterday with viciously beating her seven-year-old stepdaughter.

Long Sitha, provincial deputy prosecutor, said he sent the woman to detention for further investigation before her hearing.

The woman beat her stepdaughter almost daily after the girl came to stay with her and her husband in Preah Vihear province last month, said So Narika, deputy director of the Preah Vihear women’s affairs department, said.

After hearing the girl cry often, the neighbours reported the beatings to Narika, and provincial military police officials took the girl and her stepmother into custody on Sunday, Narika said.

“The girl’s body is full of scars, with bruises on both cheeks and on her body,” Narika said. “She told me that her stepmother used a bamboo strip and clothes hanger to beat her.”

The girl’s birth mother, who came to take her home to Siem Reap yesterday, had not known that the father had taken a second wife when he went with his daughter to work in Preah Vihear, Narika said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mom Kunthear at [email protected]