A 25-year-old Perth man has been sentenced to five years jail for what a judge described as "completely unjustified and gratuitous violence" against a two-year-old girl who had her hands immersed in boiling water.
WARNING: Some readers may find details of this story distressing.
Jaycob Anfernee John Yarran was caring for the girl and her four-year-old sister in September 2019 when she suffered third degree burns to her hands.
Yarran did not call an ambulance but instead called his partner, who was a relative of the two girls, who took the child to hospital.
She was found to have full thickness burns to her hands, which led to her losing three of her fingernails, needing skin grafts and surgery, and leaving her permanently scarred.
Yarran denied deliberately harming the child and suggested that the girl's injuries were caused accidentally when he was cooking noodles.
However, after a trial in the District Court last year, he was found guilty by a jury of causing the girl grievous bodily harm.
Yarran was also accused of inflicting cigarette lighter burns which were found on the child, but he was found not guilty of that charge.
Today Judge Alan Troy said the jury must have been satisfied Yarran deliberately immersed the girl's hands in boiling water.
He highlighted evidence from a burns specialist who had testified that she had never before seen a child with burns as deep as those suffered by the girl.
Judge Troy said while Yarran may have been legitimately boiling water that day, he had taken advantage of the circumstances to take out his anger on the child.
'Excruciating pain'
"You clearly subjected her to excruciating pain," he told the 25-year-old.
"You used boiling water as a weapon … I find you must have known how painful it would have been to do what you did."
Judge Troy described the offence as "highly serious".
"This was completely unjustified, gratuitous violence," Judge Troy said.
Yarran will have to serve three years before he is eligible for release on parole.
As he was being led away, a relative in the public gallery yelled to him "love you … we will be appealing this".
