Police have arrested a man in Dongguan city of Guangdong Province for allegedly beating his two-year-old daughter into a coma after she could not stop playing with her fingernails, local media reported yesterday.

According to the Second Procuratorate of Dongguan, the man, surnamed Fu, slapped his daughter's face, pinched her ears and forced her to kneel on the floor for periods of time between May 20 and June 3.

All this because he tried unsuccessfully to stop the girl, named Juanjuan, from playing with her fingernails and thumb until they bled, the Dongguan Daily reported.

Fu finally flew into a rage when his daughter pulled a fingernail from one of her middle fingers at home in the city's Chang'an township on June 3.

He was reportedly so angry he slapped the girl in the face, kicked her in the stomach and hit her on the head until she fell into a coma.

Fu rushed his daughter to Chang'an Hospital in Dongguan. She was soon transferred to the Dongguan People's Hospital and then to the Guangzhou Children's Hospital.

"We found many bruises on the girl's face, arms and legs. And we diagnosed her with soft tissue injury and acute kidney failure," said Guan Huisheng, a doctor with the Chang'an Hospita, according to the local newspaper. According to the procuratorate, the girl has come out of the coma and is in stable condition, but still is not completely out of danger.

"Fu was detained soon after and he has confessed everything," said Zhong Jingzhi, director of the Chang'an police station in Dongguan.

Fu and his partner, both natives of Guizhou Province, have another younger daughter, the director said.

"Fu lost his job in April and stayed at home to take care of the two girls. The jobless situation might have something to do with his violent acts," Zhong said.

Zheng Mei, Fu's partner, said Fu sometimes beat their daughters, "but he actually has a good temper. I didn't expect him to beat her so hard this time," she said, according to the local newspaper.

"I hate him for what he did. But he is the father of my girls. He misses them when they are away in my hometown," she said.

Under the country's criminal law, anyone found maltreating others may be sentenced to a maximum of seven years in prison if the maltreatment leads to serious injury or death.

(China Daily July 15, 2009)