“I dreamt that I ate so I didn’t feel hungry.”

Video testimony of a boy was played in a Hong Kong court yesterday where a father, step-mother, and step-grandmother are on trial for the death of a 5-year-old girl in 2018. In an earlier hearing the prosecutor summed it up by saying that, "The two children actually lived, figuratively speaking, in hell."

Justice Albert Wong Sung-hau issued a gag order barring the naming of either the victims or those being tried in order to protect the identities of the surviving children according to the South China Morning Post.

Identified only as X, the boy then 8-years-old spoke with investigators the day after his sister, identified only as Z, died on January 6, 2018. He told them of what he had seen the night before and of what he and his sister had suffered through since she was at least 3-years-old.

He told the investigators that the night before his sister died, his father had been playing a "game" known as "flying high" with her in which he would throw her at the ceiling where her head would "gently" hit. He testified that his father did this 18 times that night as a punishment for "walking slowly."

He too experienced "flying high" that night at the suggestion of his step-mother and told investigators, "It was very horrifying. When I was in the air, it felt like I was falling from an airplane."

That night he told that his sister was made to sleep on the floor without either a jacket or a sleeping bag. She collapsed the following morning and it was determined that she had been suffering from septicaemia - a serious blood infection. Prosecutors have stated that this was indirectly caused by the neglect and abuse she suffered and was made worse by the abuse of the previous night.

The boy also recounted that he and his sister would be hit 30-50 times with a "very thick and long" rattan cane. This was employed whenever his sister was "naughty" which he said usually happened about every other day. When asked how he knew the number of strikes used he answered, "I've experienced it, too."

According to his testimony, he was beaten at least 100 times by each parent.  Ranging from strikes with the cane to punches, slaps and being poked in the chest with a pair of scissors, the boy would not fight back against the abuse "Because I deserve it. I did something wrong."

Y told of another instance where he and Z shared leftovers after being forbidden from eating with their parents and a step-sister identified as Y as a punishment for misbehaving. Sharing leftovers was preferable though, to going without food, sometimes for days at a time. "I dreamt that I ate so I didn't feel hungry."

The prosecution will present more of his video testimony in court today.

Medical examination of Z revealed that she had over 130 injuries.

The father and stepmother have both denied the charge of murder but admitted to charges of child abuse. The step-grandmother has also been accused of four counts child cruelty and denied the charges against her.