Dad tortures, murder 13-month-old son during first custody visit (Brisbane, Australia)

UNNAMED DAD.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/man-sentenced-for-manslaughter-following-horrific-torture-and-killing-of-toddler/news-story/bf9ee4e0c908e666fdd21320f50103e4

Man sentenced for manslaughter following ‘horrific’ torture and killing of toddler 

May 26, 2016 12:11am 
Vanda Carson
The Courier-Mail

A BRISBANE father-of-two has been sentenced to up to eight years behind bars for the brutal and “horrific” torture and killing of his vulnerable 13-month-old son.

The 29-year-old storeman appeared in the Supreme Court this morning before Justice Roslyn Atkinson.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to torture and manslaughter charges, but only after he initially lied to police, claiming the boy had slipped in the bath.

Crown Prosecutor Danny Boyle told the court the man had deliberately burned his son’s left foot on the kitchen stove after he “threw” the boy across the lounge-room into a wall, causing head injuries he would later die from.

The man tortured the child at Beenleigh between 12.43am and 8.20pm on December 28, 2012, when he had temporary custody of the child for two days.

A doctor told the court that the child would have suffered “severe physical pain and suffering”.

A paediatrician said “a lot of force” was required to cause the head injury.

The man also attempted to get his girlfriend to lie on his behalf and hide his crimes, asking her to tell police the child was “dopey and kept falling over all the time” and the child had “walked over the stove” after sitting on the kitchen bench.

He told his girlfriend in a recorded phone call: “I’ve got no remorse for nobody’s passing. I just got no feeling”.

Mr Boyle told the court that what “sets this case apart” from other parents who had killed their children was that this man continued to physically abuse his son “not withstanding” repeated protestations by his girlfriend and others, telling him to stop and go to hospital.

Mr Boyle said the man also failed to take his son to hospital even when his girlfriend’s sister commented the tot “did not look right”.

After he threw his son violently against the lounge room wall, and when the child was suffering swelling of the brain, he burned the child’s foot on the stove while his girlfriend was out getting dinner at McDonalds.

“(This) can only be described as a callous and deliberately cruel act toward the child, given the child had already suffered the injury which led to the child’s death,” Mr Boyle said.

The man threatened to kick his girlfriend in the face after she tried to shield the child, begging him to return the baby to his mother.

She told police the baby “looked miserable and not right” before she left the home to go to McDonald’s.

She later called an ambulance and the baby died in hospital on December 30 after his life support was switched off. An autopsy showed he was bruised from head to toe.

The man killed his son during his only ever custody visit.

The mother allowed the boy to stay with his father in the hope they would “bond” and build a trusting relationship.

The man contacted the mother via Facebook when the baby was one year old, asking to see photos of his son.

During the two days the boy was in his father’s care, the child’s mother repeatedly called the man on his phone and sent him texts, demanding he return child.

The man replied “No he’s alright”. He refused to tell the mother where he was staying and on one occasion told her “I’m the biological father you can’t do anything”.

The mother also contacted the police, asking them to check on her baby son.

She told the court that no jail term could take away the distress she feels when she thinks of the pain suffered by her “precious innocent boy” in his final moments.

The man has been in prison on remand.

A psychological report tendered to the court states the man has a “high risk” of killing again.