A 49-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of hitting a one-year-old boy whom his female friend had left into the man’s care while she was away for work, on Yonaguni Island.

Police suspects that Hideki Hirayama beat the boy in the mornings of Apr. 2 and 3 before going to work himself and taking the boy to a nursery school. Hirayama was arrested on May 8, but when questioned he has denied the charges, but has not been able to explain the injuries that have been found on boy’s body.

The case came to the attention of the police when a teacher at the nursery school that the boy attends reported her suspicions to a government child welfare office, who then called the police.

Investigators also found marks of earlier beatings on the boy’s body, and they are grilling Hirayama to find out if there has been more beatings in the past.

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