42-year-old Wu Yuanhong has been locked in a cage for almost a decade. The mentally ill Chinese man, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 15, has been kept enclosed after he reportedly beat a 13-year-old to death in 2001.

Wu has been jailed in his house in Lijiachong village in Ruichang, with his feet shackled, wearing only a t-shirt and underwear. He is fed three times a day by his mother and is given a bed pan to use when he needs the toilet.

Mother:

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. Every time I delivered food, I would sit at his cage and cry. Now my tears are dried up.

It has been said that the reason for the obscure ways of “looking after” mentally ill people in China is because of the lack of resources and qualified professionals.

[Source: Sky News]