By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Narre Warren father of five faces likely jail after burning his four-year-old adopted son’s genitals to teach him a lesson.
The boy, who was naked after taking a shower, started lighting up a hand-held gas lighter in the kitchen, Dandenong Magistrates’ Court heard.
The accused man, who was cooking rice at the time, took the lighter wand and touched its still-hot tip on the boy’s genitals four times.
Each searing caused the boy to scream with pain, the court was told.
His injuries were discovered by staff at a child-care centre after the boy complained of a “sore bottom”.
His mother was alerted by staff that day. The boy was taken to hospital only after Department of Health and Human Services officers and police attended that evening.
Under direction of the DHHS, the accused man has since agreed to live apart from the family, the court was told.
On his arrest, the man told police that he didn’t think the lighter was “that hot” and didn’t realise the boy was injured. He thought his son had screamed out of fear, the court heard.
“I tried to make him scared of the lighter,” he told police.
“I tried to teach him (it was) no good. The lighter wasn’t on.”
A defence lawyer said the “devoted” father’s attempts to teach the boy a lesson went “horribly wrong”.
“He’s expressed that he’s horrified by what happened and that he loves the little boy.”
The accused had since enrolled in a men’s behaviour change group and psychological counselling.
The court was presented with character references from his church’s pastor and a work colleague.
Magistrate Tara Hartnett said she was concerned that the man would target “that particular area of a four-year-old body”.
It would cause “maximum discomfort even if not hot”, with the injuries being instantly visible, Ms Hartnett said.
Ms Hartnett noted the “highly regarded” man had no prior convictions and good rehabilitative prospects but the gravity of offending called for a jail term.
“This is a serious assault on a four-year-old child where your client is essentially the father role and in cirucmstances where there are multiple individual injuries.”
Ms Hartnett indicated that the man would be jailed for three months followed by a community corrections order.
The man will be sentenced at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 7 October, pending a community corrections assessment.
