A 30-year-old unemployed woman was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Hiroshima District Court Tuesday for fatally beating her 11-year-old daughter with a golf club at their home in Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, in October 2012.

The court heard that the defendant, Asato Horiuchi, beat her daughter Yuma with a golf club in the morning, Fuji TV reported. While she was driving her daughter over to her parents' house in the afternoon, Yuma lost consciousness and Horiuchi stopped at a police koban for help. The girl was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead a short time later.

According to the Hiroshima prefectural government's child welfare division, Horiuchi and her mother abused Yuma in February 2009. At that time, officials placed Yuma in a children's institution where she remained for two years until her mother took custody of her again last year.

Horiuchi told police she got angry because her daughter lied to her.

Pictures of the smiling young girl circulated in the media following the incident leading commentators to ask what she could have possibly done to drive her mother to beat her.

© Japan Today