Man arrested for attempted murder of three-year-old boy, hiding him in freezer

HÀ NỘI — Police in Hà Nam Province have arrested a  二 五-year-old man for the attempted murder of a three-year-old boy after beating him unconscious and hiding him in a freezer.

Police said the incident happened at about  三. 二0pm on August  一 三 at the suspect’s milk bubble tea shop in Chính Lý Co妹妹une, Lý Nhân District in northern Hà Nam Province.

Preliminary information shows that on the afternoon of August  一 三, the three-year-old boy walked from his house to the milk bubble tea shop of Nguyễn Trường Giang next door. There were no guests at the shop.

The boy drank a cup of milk tea from the table. The suspect told the boy to behave so he could do the cleaning.

When the suspect went to the counter to clean up, the boy followed, took cookies and sat on a camp bed eating. The boy kept asking Giang to play with him.

Annoyed by the boy’s questions, Giang took a metal pestle, used to smash ice, and hit the back of the boy’s head. The boy fell off the bed, hit his head on the floor and cried out.

Giang tried to quieten him, but the boy cried louder and called for his mother. Giang covered the boy’s mouth with his left hand and squeezed and held his neck on the floor with his right hand. One minute later, the boy fell quiet.

Giang went to the door to look outside when the boy shouted: “Grandpa, mom, he hit me.”

The suspect then used a rope to tighten around the back of the boy’s neck, covered the boy’s mouth, strangled him and banged his head on the floor until he was unconscious.

He then picked the boy up, stuffed him in a cardboard box and put him in a freezer. He closed the shop and left on his motorbike.

Giang received a phone call from the boy’s grandfather asking if his grandson had visited the shop, Giang said the boy had come, but he hadn’t see him since.

The boy’s family broke into Giang’s shop to look for the boy and found him locked in the freezer. He was quickly taken to the hospital for emergency treatment.

The provincial Criminal Police Department, in cooperation with Lý Nhân District’s Police, caught Giang trying to flee to Hà Nội.

The boy is being treated at the National Hospital of Paediatrics.