PORT DICKSON: A father, who has been remanded for physically abusing his nine-year-old daughter until she died has admitted to police that he used a belt issued by the military to beat her hours before she died.

Port Dickson OCPD Supt Zainudin Ahmad said the 38-year-old army sergeant also admitted to kicking and stepping on the girl till she urinated.

“The suspect claimed that he had hit the victim with a plastic chair too,” he said, adding that police have since seized the belt and a broken plastic chair from their home in Taman Vista Jaya, near here.

Also remanded yesterday was the man’s 34-year-old wife, who is the girl’s stepmother.

They were brought to their house to help in the police probe.

The stepmother was taken into the house first while police kept watch on the man, about 20m away.

The forensics team spent almost two hours at the crime scene.

Neighbours, who were shocked by the victim’s death, watched as the police did their work.

When interviewed, one of them said they had no clue that the father could be so brutal.

“He always portrayed a good image. In fact, we could sometimes hear him recite the Quran during the night,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Another neighbour said he often heard the father scolding the victim but the girl never confided in anyone.

“When we asked her about the swellings and bruises, she would say that she fell from her bicycle,” he said.

Another neighbour, who taught the victim and her 11-year-old brother to recite the Quran, said the girl was a fast learner.

“She was supposed to have completed reciting the Quran soon.

“Although she has been with me for two years, she never once confided in me the abuse she endured at home,” she said.

The couple was arrested on Thursday after a post-mortem conducted on the child revealed serious injuries caused by a blunt object.

There were serious injuries to her liver and kidneys and tears in her intestines. Two of her ribs were also fractured.

The father had tried to perform CPR on the victim just before midnight on Wednesday after he claimed to have found her unconscious at home, but she did not respond.

He then took the girl to the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital in Seremban, where doctors pronounced her dead an hour later.

The girl’s remains were taken to Ipoh for burial after a post-mortem.

Supt Zainudin said the suspect’s 11-year-old son will be handed over to his biological mother.

“The two suspects also have two sons aged two and five months. We will hand them over to the woman’s family,” he said.

He appealed to the public to not make allegations on the case on social media.

Earlier, magistrate Siti Khairiah Abd Razak allowed an application by investigating officer Insp Mahafiz Mat Lawi to remand the couple for a week.

The case is being investigated for murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code.