Child dies in horrific attack

THE DEATH of an eight-yearold boy at the hands of masked men at his home in Elda is being investigated by National Police.

According to news agencies Europa Press and EFE, police sources said they have not ruled out that the victim may also have been sexually abused in front of his foster father’s girlfriend, who is several months pregnant and was found tied to a chair with a bag on her head and covered in bruises.

They said the woman and the boy had been leaving their home on Calle Don Quijote, in the middle of the town centre, at about 21.00 on Wednesday when two men wearing crash helmets forced them back upstairs.

A neighbour called the 112 emergency number when she heard loud shouting and saw the door was half open but had not been forced

Medics found the boy seminaked on the floor and in cardiac arrest but they were unable to resuscitate him and he died.

The police indicated that the cause of death will have to be determined by an autopsy but noted that the boy had not suffered any knife wounds.

At the time of the assault the boy’s foster father was at work.

The woman was taken to Elda Hospital in a serious state of shock.

Based on her statement, police are searching for the two people wearing crash helmets who they suspect carried out the attack.

The woman is believed to be aged around 40.

When the boy’s father arrived home he suffered a breakdown and started to beat the walls, until police officers took him away so he could be treated for his condition.

Elda mayor Rubén Alfaro declared a day’s mourning yesterday (Thursday) and said the town was ‘ in a state of shock’.

He noted that the family were ‘well known in Elda, related to the world of sport and part of the social fabric of the municipality’.