Boy beaten by father to be moved to facility for minors

A 10-year-old boy from Syria hospitalized at the weekend after a vicious beating by his 45-year-old father is expected to be transferred to an accommodation facility for minors, according to reports on Monday.

Local media in Iraklio on Crete, where they live, said the father, who was arrested, admitted the beating to a local prosecutor, claiming that he got angry when his son told him that he got into a fight with another boy who made sexual advances toward him.

Even though his son rejected the other boy’s advances and got into a physical altercation with him, the father said he nonetheless flew into a fit of rage.

“I tried to protect him from making a mistake and I made the biggest one,” the father reportedly said.

The boy needed stitches and was said to be limping when admitted to hospital.

The boy’s mother and sister were reportedly killed in Syria.