Dad arrested after beating toddler to death

By Bao Daozu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-01 07:11

Li Hailong waits outside the emergency ward at Zhengzhou Children's Hospital. [CHINA DAILY ]

A two-year-old boy has died after being beaten by his father in Henan province, media reports say.

The boy, Li Jinliang, died in Zhengzhou Children's Hospital on Friday afternoon. He was covered in scars and suffering from severe bruising to the brain, hospital records showed.

Qi Lin, the director of the department of cerebral surgery at the hospital, said the injuries were the result of a beating.

"In fact, the child was already brain dead [when he was admitted to our hospital]," Qi said.

"The fatal wound was in the head. The boy's right cerebral hemisphere showed severe cerebral edema He could no longer breathe after he was sent to our hospital."

"There were teeth bites on the child's arms and legs, mostly old bruises. It's hard to imagine what kind of abuse he had suffered," Dong Fengmei, the head nurse from the intensive care unit, told the Zhengzhou Evening News.

Doctors tried to keep the boy alive with emergency treatment, but Qi said the child died at 12:25 am.

The boy's 27-year-old father, Li Hailong, was under police detention in Baqian of Xinzheng when the local hospital informed authorities of the incident.

The farmer sent his son to a local clinic before taking him to Xinzheng People's Hospital, where he was later transfered, at 4:00 am on Friday.

According to Li, the child had already been in a coma since 11:00 pm on Thursday.

"I didn't mean to beat him, I just couldn't control myself," the father told Zhengzhou Evening News reporters.

Li Hailong admitted he recently vented his anger on the boy because of an unhappy marriage. He had beaten the boy five or six times in the past two months after his wife left home to work in Beijing, the Zhengzhou-based Dahe Daily reported.

Li and his wife, Sun Fang, have a four-month-old daughter, who is being cared for by relatives. Li is not the biological father of Li Jinliang, media reported.

Police said Li Hailong admitted to the abuse and would face criminal punishment.