Australian toddler was put in tumble drier
A man who injured a 14-month-old toddler by spinning her in a clothes drier was today jailed for eight months by an Australian court.
Samuel Siddall, 21, was baby-sitting his girlfriend’s daughter when he placed the child in a tumble drier and switched it on for two minutes in the west coast city of Perth on May 25.
The mother returned home from her gym visit to find her daughter shaking with pain from burns to her hands, feet and back. She also had a bruised face and spine, Joondalup Magistrates Court was told.
Siddall, a university student who had been studying to become a school teacher, initially denied any knowledge of how the child had been injured but later pleaded guilty to a charge of causing grievous bodily harm.
Siddall has previously told the court that he put the child in the drier because she had spilled medicine on herself and he thought she would enjoy it.
But Magistrate Richard Bayly said that Siddall had told police he did it because he was “getting annoyed with her ... crying”.
Bayly said he accepted Siddall had acted out of stupidity rather than malice.
“It beggars belief, really, that immediately after taking the child out of the dryer you didn’t seek medical attention,” Bayly said.
Siddal must serve the entire eight months in prison without chance of parole.
The child had recovered and was not expected to be permanently scarred, the court was told.
