Man jailed for scalding toddler

Smith admitted injuring the toddler

A man who dipped a toddler into a bath of scalding water, disfiguring her for life, has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.

The child was critically ill after the incident and has undergone a series of skin graft operations on the burns, which covered 42% of her body.

Judge Ian Simpson, told Robert Smith, 26, of Shawlands, Glasgow, that he could find no signs of remorse in him.

He told him his attitude towards the incident was "reprehensible".

The judge, who described the case as "profoundly distressing", had been shown photographs of the toddler taken after the incident and more recently.

By your criminal and cruel act this little girl sustained agonising injuries with horrible long term consequences Judge Ian Simpson

He told Smith that he could not find any similar cases like it in the UK to help him determine what sentence he should pass.

He accepted, however, that Smith had only meant to cause the child "mere discomfort", that another child had run the bath and that he had "only dipped" the little girl in.

But he added: "By your criminal and cruel act this little girl sustained agonising injuries with horrible long term consequences."

Smith, who was appearing for sentence at the High Court in Glasgow after pleading guilty last month, was originally charged with attempting to murder the baby, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Instead he admitted an alternative charge under the Children and Young Persons Act of wilfully ill-treating the baby in a manner likely to cause her suffering or injury to her health.

The charge said he caused her head and limbs to be immersed in scalding water to her severe injury, permanent disfigurement and the danger of her life on 21 May, 2001 in a flat in Govanhill, Glasgow.