A thug battered his lover's two-year-old boy so violently he's now in a permanent vegetative state and unable to feel anything other than pain.
Adam Thomas, 28, left Thomas Sullivan with severe head trauma, a lacerated liver, multiple fractures and a burn after the vicious attack.
The toddler will now suffer permanent mental and physical disabilities because of the abuse.
Thomas was dating the boy's mother Denise Rae Watson, 26, at the time, September last year.
The yob was given two back-to-back life sentences in February - the first for the horrific abuse of the toddler and the second for kicking his three-year-old sister Amery on another occasion.
Now the siblings' furious aunty, Sarah Sullivan, said: "He's only responsive to pain.
"[Thomas] breathes on his own, and then he stops. He’s not doing well. He’s going to live, but they said we need to prepare for him to be in this state for the rest of his life."
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Amery suffered stomach injuries and fractures to her pelvis and ribs in Houston, Texas, after she was repeatedly whacked.
"As many of you know, my niece and nephew were brutally beaten...and I love them more than life itself," Ms Sullivan wrote in a heartfelt post on GoFundMe , set up to help cover the costs of Amery and little Thomas' medical treatment.
She added: "I finished college [and] moved home to help raise them. But the thing is, they filled a void in my heart that can never be replaced.
"My family is in it deep, emotionally [and] financially."
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Police found Thomas had previously burned two other children, before abusing the siblings.
He had tried to claim to cops the kids fell down the stairs and "played too hard on a slip-and-slide at a birthday party".
But investigators discovered he conspired with their mum Watson to lie to police and attempt to cover-up the abuse.
Watson pleaded guilty for failing to seek care for her two children, and was handed a 20-year sentence on March 7.
To donate to the family's GoFundMe cause, click here .
