Baby, 10 months, is in a coma after being beaten and burned

A BABY is fighting for life in hospital after a horrific attack allegedly occurred in a Sydney home at the weekend.

A 10-month-old baby boy remains in an induced coma in hospital after allegedly being severely beaten and burned by a man at a home in Sydney’s west.

On Sunday afternoon ambulance paramedics called police to the Penrith home where they were treating the boy for significant burns to his head, neck, chest and back, as well as significant head and facial injuries.

“We understand that some of the injuries relate to burning of the skin and about 40 per cent of the child’s body. There are other injuries there that appear to be consistent with blunt force trauma,” Detective Superintendent Brett McFadden told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

He was taken to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead where he remains in a critical condition in an induced coma.

A 23-year-old man arrested at the home has been charged with recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm and has been refused bail to appear in Penrith Local Court on Monday.

Det Supt McFadden said the man was not the child’s father, but officers had spoken with the biological father,

“What we do know is that the biological mother of the child and the 23-year-old male that has been arrested have been in a relationship for the last four or five months and for the last few weeks, they’ve been residing together at the Penrith address,” he said.

The child’s mother is very distressed he said.

“She is with the child at the hospital. We spoke with her at length last night. Suffice to say she is very distressed.”

It’s believed the 23-year-old and the 10-month-old were the only ones at the Penrith home on Sunday afternoon, he said.

The arrested man is known to police, but would not say in what capacity.

—AAP

Originally published as Baby, 10 months, is in a coma after being beaten and burned