A nine-year-old boy’s penis was tied with human hair so he would not urinate and he was also whipped with stinging nettles by teachers at his convent school.

The alleged abuse took place at the Hogar Monserrate convent school run by nuns in the village of Tilata in the municipality of Choconta in the Colombian department of Cundinamarca.

The boy’s aunt, Paola Morales, reported the case to the Prosecutor’s Office after the boy’s family in the Colombian capital, Bogota, discovered the abuse.

Morales was quoted in reports as saying: “The minor has been attending a convent school in Choconta for seven months and, on 15th December, we picked him up because they gave him holidays to be with his family at Christmas.

“The boy started to cry and was in a lot of pain. The boy was checked by his mum, and she saw his penis was swollen and purple.”

She said they took him to the doctor’s, where the strings and human hair tied around his penis were removed.

According to Morales, he had not been able to urinate for 10 days and he had also developed a bladder infection.

Morales also said the hair had cut through the skin, causing deep wounds, which had also become infected.

She also told reporters about more physical abuse, such as her son being whipped with stinging nettles and being forced to stand in just trunks in the cold for over two hours at dawn.

The boy’s mother reportedly enrolled the youngster in the convent school because staff there had assured her they could help him overcome the behavioural and language problems he had been diagnosed with.

The mother confirmed the aunt’s version of events, telling El Tiempo: “The doctors found my son’s penis was tied with someone’s long hair. They had tied his member at the base, and that prevented him from urinating.”

When the boy was admitted to the school, the nuns reportedly told his family they could see him only once every six months and speak over the phone just once a week.

Other children at the school were reportedly abused, too, and the youngster also told his family the teachers there would rap them on the head.

The departmental authorities have ordered an inspection of the school and the Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the alleged abuse.

The boy is now reportedly receiving counselling.