A man from Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, was arrested Friday for allegedly inflicting bodily injury resulting in the death of the youngest of this three daughters in July 2012, police said.
Kazuya Suzuki, 33, a company worker from the Nishi Miyuki-cho district, was arrested on suspicion of harming the 7-month-old girl at their home. The victim, named Mirea, was the youngest of twins.
The police allege Suzuki hurt the girl by either vigorously shaking her or slamming her into something, which resulted in several head injuries, including acute subdural hematoma, considered the deadliest of head injuries. The child, who was taken to a hospital after the incident, died the neext month.
Suzuki has denied battering or shaking the girl.
The girl's twin sister, meanwhile, died in July this year, the police said. They are investigating the case based on allegations that she also was subjected to physical abuse.
The police believe both twins died from "shaken baby syndrome" that also resulted in severe brain injury.
Shaken baby syndrome is a form of child abuse caused by forcefully and violently shaking a child's body. Because an infant's brain is not fully developed and the violent movement pitches the brain back and forth within the skull, it can destroy brain cells and in extreme cases result in death.
Suzuki's twins were hospitalized in February 2012 after their health condition had worsened due to cold. The older twin was diagnosed with brain damage during hospitalization in 2012 and was pronounced dead this July after being transferred to a hospital in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. Police speculate that Suzuki might have abused the older twin during her stay in the hospital.
The younger of the two, meanwhile, was released from the hospital after treatment, but she was then taken to a hospital in Toyohashi a second time in July 2012.