Police are searching for a foreigner suspected of child abuse after one of his 11 adopted children was admitted to hospital in serious condition.

Eight year-old Phoebe was taken to hospital on November 24 with kidney damage and physical injuries doctors said was caused by an “external force”. It’s the third time she’s been taken to hospital with serious injuries, and she previously told doctors her father hit her. Ray has since disappeared along with his 10 other children.

Doctors say Phoebe is malnourished and underweight for her age. “The weight of this eight year-old girl is not even 20 kilograms. Her arms are not even the diameter of two fingers of an adult,” one caregiver said.

Volunteers who have been in contact with the family say the adoptive parent hasn’t treated the children well.

Xu Qiang (a pseudonym) is a volunteer who had been providing help to the family for a number of years. Xu said the adopted children all have birth defects of some kind, like the cleft palate that Phoebe once suffered from, or suffer from mental disabilities.

The Beijinger reports that the expat’s name is Ray. He has apparently been raising these children in various apartments around Beijing, most recently at the Capital Paradise apartments in Shunyi. The family has frequently been seen at local cafes were Ray has been seen mistreating his children. Other resident of the area says the children have been seen rummaging through garbage in order to look for food.

Xu said Ray either found the children at train stations or they were brought to him. Ray raises money on a website to help pay for their corrective surgeries.

Ray is approximately 50 years-old, has lived in China for around 30 years, and speaks fluent Chinese. His adopted children are said to be more fluent in English than Chinese as a result of being home-schooled.

Police are now frantically searching for Ray and the other children.

Photos: ynet

h/t @MissXQ