Video of Malaysian woman beating baby goes viral, sparking outrage
A video of a Malaysian mother beating her baby has provoked outrage after it was posted online and went viral.
The four-minute video, shared on various social media sites and over BBM, shows a woman slapping and pinching the baby and yelling at the infant to stop crying, Asia One reported.
She also hits the baby with a cellphone.
The video was posted on YouTube, but had since been removed.
The mother — reportedly 18 years old when she beat her 10-month-old in May 2011— screams "Diamlah bodoh!" which translates as "Shut up, stupid!" News24 reported.
A friend of the mother who had witnessed her beating the child on other occasions filmed the latest incident and approached the police the same day, said a senior Kuala Lumpur police officer, Arjunaidi Mohamed.
The mother was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 18 months in prison, he said.
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However, a year after the incident occurred, the video has drawn an angry reaction online as far away as Massachusetts, where local news broadcaster WWLP-22News reported receiving "many emails" about the footage, CNN reported.
In Australia, ninemsn said it had also been inundated with messages from people wanting the woman found and charged.
The Royal Malaysian Police, meantime, said they had also received hundreds of complaints and comments about the case.
However, they said on their Facebook page that the incident was old news.
"The woman in the video is the toddler's birth mother and was arrested on the day the police report was lodged," the statement said.
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