A two-year-old girl in central China has been in a coma for almost a year after she was severely abused by her mother’s lover. Liu Xinyi, from Henan province’s Song county, suffered traumatic brain injuries and second-degree burns from the abuse, The Beijing News reported. Father who beat baby daughter and sent pictures of her injuries to ex-wife arrested in China She was taken to hospital a day after she was badly beaten by her mother’s lover last September and has been in a coma since. Her father, Zhang Shaofeng, who was working in Inner Mongolia when the abuse happened, has taken over care of the child. Her mother had initially claimed that the little girl injured herself while playing in the park, but Zhang called the police to report the incident under doctors’ advice. It was then that the mother revealed that the girl had been abused by her lover when the pair secretly met in a hotel. Father ‘beat daughter to death for copying homework’ in Hangzhou “He was angry that Xinyi was crying, so he beat her,” the mother wrote in a confession. “He tied her arms and legs with tape, burnt her with cigarettes and hit her head against the ground.” The lover, who was the family’s neighbour, has denied abusing the girl. The man and the girl’s mother have both been arrested and their case will be tried in a local court.