PROBE INTO ABUSE AFTER BOY FORCED TO DRINK BEER

Children taken into state care

- GENEVIEVE SERRA

FOUR children between the ages of seven months and 11 years have been removed from their home by the Department of Social Development (DSD) after a video circulated of a four-year-old boy being forced to drink beer.

A criminal case of child abuse has been registered by police. No arrests have been made.

The shocking video shows the little boy squatting on the ground, holding the bottle of beer in one hand and a glass in the other. He is seen drinking a glass of the beer and is being told by a male person to drink it: “Sluk, sluk, (drink it, swallow it).The boy is visibly sickened by the taste and puts on a brave face and proceeds to pour another glass of the beer and then passes it to the man. The man can be heard laughing.

Numerous bottles of the beer can be seen standing around the child whose legs and arms appear badly bruised.

Yesterday, police spokesperson, Captain FC Van Wyk confirmed that when the alarm was raised, the SAPS and the DSD responded.