A ten-year-old boy had his hand cut off and thrown in boiling water by his mother’s boyfriend in China following a row over money. Xiao Jun was allegedly beaten with a stick by Cheng Sun who grabbed a meat cleaver and cut off his right hand in the attack in Shenyang, Liaoning province. Cheng is then said to have thrown the boy’s hand into a pan of boiling water so that it could not be reattached.He is reported to have lashed out following a dispute over money. Xiao was taken to hospital after Cheng called police to tell them what he had done. But surgeons were unable to reattach the hand because it had swelled up so badly in the boiling water. The boy now faces having to be fitted with an artificial arm.
Cheng met the boy’s mother Xiao Shen last year and, according to the Daily Mirror, the pair were to buy a flat together. The couple and Shen’s son were living in a rented apartment while looking for a new home. But the boy’s mother, who is reportedly pregnant, was away visiting family in the hope of borrowing some money to help secure a new home when the attack allegedly took place.
The couple allegedly rowed over the phone when Shen rang to say there had been a delay. It is then that Cheng is said to have lashed out at the boy. The boy is said to be in a stable condition in hospital following surgery. According to the Mirror, he told police: ‘I always thought he would really be a good dad to me, I liked him. ‘Now everything is ruined. I don’t know why he did this, he just seemed to become someone else.’ Cheng has been arrested by police.