3-Year-Old Girl Died After Being Badly Beaten By Stepfather For Wetting Bed

A 3-year-old girl in Brazil died after being badly beaten by her step-father for wetting her bed, a court heard recently.

According to media reports, the accused, Christopher Coelho, had violently beaten the girl on several occasions. In June 2018, the girl -- identified as Ana da Silva -- died after Coelho assaulted her for wetting her bed. Following the assault, Silva suffered a nosebleed before having a suspected seizure, 7News reported Tuesday.

On the day of the tragedy, the girl was found inside her home in an unconscious state by her aunt and grandmother who lived nearby. She was reportedly facing difficulty in breathing and had swelling as well as bruises on her body. Her family rushed her to a hospital where she died.

The police immediately arrested 27-year-old Coelho and the girl's mother, 19-year-old Leticia Fonseca.

During the investigation, the police questioned the staff at the nursery Silva attended and learned the child's parents were reported to the authorities in the past for maltreatment.

“She arrived in a very serious condition, with craniocerebral hemorrhage and broken ribs,” the prosecutor at the trial said, according to News.com.au. “And the mother spent the whole day watching her daughter’s suffering.”

Both Coelho and Fonseca were convicted of homicide -- receiving a total of 61 years in prison between them. On March 5, the jury in a Brazilian court found the two guilty, sentencing Coelho to 32 years, one month and 20 days in prison for homicide. Fonseca was sentenced to 29 years, two months and 23 days in prison for the same charge.

In a similar incident last year, a New York mother was sentenced to 18 years in prison for drowning her daughter as a punishment for wetting her bed. The incident took place in March 2016. The accused, identified as 28-year-old Lin Li, submerged her two-year-old daughter’s head in a plastic container filled with water. The woman later called 911 saying there was an emergency related to her daughter. When paramedics arrived, they found the child's father performing CPR on his daughter. The baby was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead.