A woman and her female partner have been arrested for beating the former’s five-year-old son to death after she won custody.

Magdalena Esposito Valiente, 24, and her partner Abigail Paez, 27, took young Lucio to a police station in the city of Santa Rosa in the Argentine province of La Pampa on the night of Friday, 26th November.

Lucio was having a seizure when he arrived at the police station and subsequently fainted. Staff performed CPR on him to try to resuscitate him before he was transferred to the Evita Hospital, where, despite doctors’ best efforts, he passed away.

The doctors found he had blood in his mouth and bruises all over his body, with the subsequent post-mortem revealing his cause of death as internal bleeding. His mum and her girlfriend were swiftly arrested.

According to local media including Infobae, the two women were in conflict with the boy’s father Christian Dupuy, who, like the boy’s mother, hails from the city of General Pico.

Custody over Lucio was granted to his mother over a year and a half ago, something Christian and his family had warned would be fatal, given the mother and her new partner’s alleged acts of violence.

In a social media post, the boy’s grieving father wrote: “Justice never listened to me, it always favoured the mother, no matter how many lawyers or mediations I carried out.

“Today my son paid for it. But don’t just listen to the mother. Dad also suffers in silence. Today my heart is broken and my soul finds no solace.”

He revealed the suffering his son went through, writing: “Now I understand when we did video calls and I asked you something and you looked around to see if anyone was listening to you.

“That’s why you took a while to answer me when I asked you if you were happy. They kept you silent. You were scared and I didn’t realise it.”

He also begged for his late son’s forgiveness, writing: “Forgive me, son, I was too late… I love you. I’m so sorry I couldn’t do anything.”

Along with the couple’s arrest, raids were carried out at their house and their mobile phones were seized.

A march calling for justice for Lucio was attended by residents in General Pico on the evening of Sunday, 28th November.

The two suspects remain in custody as investigations continue.