Woman Keeps Son In Cage For 42 Years | PHOTOS

Peng Weiqing, 48, has been caged in his mother's house in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, since the age of six. Peng Waimei, says that she did it to protect Weiqing.

Waimei and her late husband locked their son away and have fed him through the bars ever since after a series of health problems as a child.

When Weiqing was still a baby he suffered a high fever, which left him brain-damaged. He then begun suffering severe epilectic fits at the age of six.

Fearing that he would hurt himself and unable to afford medical treatment, Waimei's husband built a series of cages that got larger as Weiqing grew.

Waimei said: "He can't control himself. When he was young, quite often he would cut himself with a knife and glass debris.Even when walking, he could suddenly fall down and hit his face and make it bleed."

"He must know me, although he may not know the meaning of 'mother'. He is my 48-year-old child."

With Weiqing's father now dead and his mother aged 80, Waimei who has appealed for someone to help look after her son fears for  when she dies and hopes to find someone to take care of him.