A nine-year-old boy in France has been found dead after allegedly being beaten by his family members.
The young boy’s mother, brother, sister and stepsister were arrested after local police became concerned that his death may not have been from natural causes.
It is believed that the boy from the French town of Mulhouse, was hit with a broom handle after he refused to do his homework. His death is said to have occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning.
It is said that it was the boy’s 19-year-old brother who allegedly hit the victim under orders to do so from their mother. The boy’s mother was not present in the house at the time, but is believed to have told her older children to use this form of punishment on their little brother.
Though it seemed that the boy had died of cardiac arrest according to French news website Dernieres Nouvelles D’Alsace patholgists changed their cause of death to ‘a blow to the head’ when bruises were later discovered on the boy’s body.
The four family members are due to appear before the local prosecutor while a judicial investigation is put underway.
