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Sankei Shimbun, July 2nd, 2011

A mother and her partner were arrested on the suspicion of injuring her two children by vacuuming their faces with a vacuum cleaner in Sakai, Osaka.

The Osaka Prefecture Police Nishisakai Station arrested suspects Mai Okumura (29) (the mother, unemployed, Hishiki, Nishi-ku, Sakai City) and Kazushi Mizutani (28) (the motherfs partner, a manager of bone rehabilitation clinic, Kusabe, Nishi-ku, Sakai City) on suspicion of violence causing serious injury to her son (6) (the first grade at an elementary school) and her daughter (3) (preschooler). According to the police station, they deny the charges and alleged, "We hit them for discipline".
The alleged crime occurred from mid May to the 24th. The suspect Okumura threw her son around and vacuumed her daughter's face causing injuries which required two weeks for recovery.
According to the same police station, the staff at the day-care center which the daughter attends found the bruise on her face on the 24th, and the staff informed the Sakai City Child Consultation Center. Because the Child Consultation Center found bruises on her son's face and thigh, the center suspected abuse and notified the same police station on June 25th.
Moreover, according to the child consultation center, in January of this year the staff of the day-care center found bruises on her daughter's face and hips, etc., and she was sheltered at child consultation center once. But, the stay was discontinued in a week because the suspect Okumura explained that "The brother and sister fought" and that "When they were playing, they got injured". The center had handled the situation by way of home visits etc. since then.

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