An 11-year-old girl allegedly starved to death by her religious fanatic parents kept a heartbreaking diary revealing the strict fasting regime imposed on her, police reports.
Perrolla Pires was allegedly locked in her bedroom without food or water – then forced to pray and perform strenuous sit-ups and push-ups on an empty stomach.
She claimed in her over 300 pages journal that her mum Aline, 26, and stepdad Enri, 47, would leave her without food for days at a time at their home in Ubatuba, south east Brazil.
Police were alerted to the case when the couple brought Perolla into hospital on October 24, where she described as arriving “lifeless and pale”. She was pronounced dead on examination.
Chief superintendent, Ricardo Mamede said to FocusOn News: “The step-father has strong religious convictions and believed that the children needed to be saved, needed to become more God fearing and should purify themselves. He claimed this ‘could only happen through fasting.”
A post-mortem revealed Perolla’s cause of death to be protein calorie malnutrition (PCM), from severe and prolonged starvation.
However, her parents have denied they are responsible and are believed to be blaming the doctors involved in the case.
The pages, which contain drawings of her exercising on an empty stomach and pictures of hearts, were shown to her mother, who then allegedly confessed to “torturing” the children.
The children were allegedly made to miss a meal every time they “disrespected” their parents, which would then be increased into two meals if they asked for food or failed to comply. To correct their behaviour , both children had to pray and do exercises.
Supt. Mamede said: “In the last fast she kept asking for something to eat. When she complained of hunger she was told to drink water.
‘She said she had drank water but was accused of lying and punished for it.”
Perolla was buried on November 2 at a funeral attended by hundreds of residents from their city while her brother has been taken into care.
