Father allegedly beats daughter, 12, to death for spending three nights away from home

A 30-year-old Mpumalanga man who allegedly beat his 12-year-old daughter to death will appear in court on court on Tuesday for a formal bail application.

 The man, who handed himself over to police on Wednesday, made a brief appearance before the the Mkhuhlu Magistrate’s Court on Friday on a charge of murder and was remanded in custody.

“It is alleged that on Tuesday, July 22 2019, the suspect brutally assaulted his 12-year-old daughter after she had apparently slept out for a period of three days. The following day her parents noticed that she was unresponsive as they were trying to wake her up to get ready for school. She was then rushed to hospital, where she was declared dead upon arrival.

"It was there that the suspect allegedly admitted to having brutally assaulted her, he then handed himself over to the police,” Mpumalanga police said.