A FRENCH tourist beat his four-year-old daughter's head against the stone base of a Rome monument so hard she was left in a coma, police said yesterday.
Blood still stained the pavement of the Altar of the Nation hours after the girl was beaten late on Saturday night.
Bambino Gesu paediatric hospital said she had suffered severe head injuries and was in a coma.
Her condition was last night desc
ribed as "critical but stable".
Carabinieri Lieutenant-Colonel Antonello Casarsa said the man, identified as Julien Monnet, 37, repeatedly struck the head of his daughter, Luna, against the stone after a traffic officer asked to see some identification.
A Canadian tourist had told police that Monnet had been acting strangely toward the girl.
"He was holding the child in an unhealthy way. She was crying and screaming," the traffic officer, Anna Esposito, later told Italian state TV. When approached Monnet quickened his step, said Ms Esposito, then said something she couldn't understand when she asked him what he was doing.
"He was holding the girl by her arm and then started striking her head against the stone," she said.
Ms Esposito said the Canadian had then grabbed the child while she struggled to hold Monnet and called for help. "He was like a furious beast," Ms Esposito said.
Monnet was then surrounded by passers-by. He tried to break free and attempted to strike his own head on the monument, but onlookers prevented him, said Lt-Col Casarsa.
He said that a search had revealed medicine in Monnet's backpack which suggested he had been undergoing psychiatric treatment.
He added that Monnet lived with the child's mother near Paris. Police contacted her on holiday in Turkey from where she was flying to Rome. She told police she believed Monnet and her daughter were still in France.
Monnet was arrested and taken to Regina Coeli jail.
The full article contains 325 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
