Abused 3rd-grader returned to stepmother

A 10-year-old boy in Heyuan, Guangdong province, who was violently beaten by his stepmother and sent to live temporarily with a relative, has returned home but is not requesting any legal punishment against his stepmother, a senior official from the city's women's federation said on Thursday.

The public security bureau of Heyuan's Yuancheng district said on Wednesday that the third-grader was violently beaten by his stepmother after he got home from school with his clothes soaked from a rainy May day. She had accused the boy of playing in water and beat him.

Photos from the bureau showed bruises all over the boy's body.