A court in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on Friday sentenced a couple to a combined 11 years in jail for brutally torturing their nine-month-old daughter.

Le Thanh Tam received six years for torturing Nguyen Thi Nhu Y, his stepdaughter, while Y’s mother Nguyen Thi Xuan Lan was sentenced to five years with similar charges.

Last September, health officers in Lai Vung District came to the couple’s house asking them to take their child for measles vaccination when they found Y covered in bruises and ulcerated wounds.

They reported to local police and brought the baby girl to hospital.

The police determined her mother and 34-year-old stepfather beat Y.

After the couple was arrested, they admitted to beating the baby with Tam capturing the gruesome images on his phone camera.

According to the indictment, Y is the daughter of Lan and a Taiwanese father. After Lan met Tam, they lived together as a family.

Tam thought a ghost inhabited the child because the nine-month- old baby was always crying. He told Lan he would shoo the ghost by beating up the child.

Tam repeatedly beat the child with his hands and a stick for more than a week until the baby had bruises and wounds all over her hands, legs and feet.

Lan was sitting next to Tam, witnessing the abuse and she herself beat up the child several times, the court was told.

Currently, the child is living with her mother’s relatives and has fully recovered from the physical portion of her injuries.