Family kept Chinese man in cage for 11 yrs

Wu Yuanhong (42), was shown sitting on blankets in the narrow enclosure, his feet shackled with a heavy chain and wearing only a T-shirt and his underwear.

Pic/AFP

He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic at the age of 15 and in 2001 he beat a 13-year-old to death. Judicial authorities in Jiangxi province released him a year later as his illness meant he was not legally responsible for his actions, it said.

"My son may be insane, and beat someone to death, but he's still my son. To use my own hands to place him in a cage was very hard to take, like being stabbed with a knife," Wu's mother was quoted as saying.

Wang gives her son three meals a day, placing a cloth over the cage and providing a pan when he needs the toilet.u00a0"Every time I delivered food, I would sit at his cage and cry," she said. u00a0