A Perth man has been found guilty of causing severe burns to a two-year-old girl.
WARNING: This story contains details that readers may find distressing.
Jaycob Anfernee John Yarran was charged with causing grievous bodily harm over the severe hand burns the two-year-old girl suffered when she was in Yarran's care in 2019.
She also had burns said to have been caused by a cigarette lighter.
Yarran, who is now 25, has been found not guilty of doing an act causing bodily harm in relation to the lighter burns.
But he has been found guilty of the more serious charge.
The toddler and her older sister were in the care of Yarran at a home in Maddington on September 30, 2019.
Yarran was 22 at the time.
His explanation to police was that the two-year-old must have pulled down a boiling pot of noodles from a stove in the kitchen.
Prosecutor Alan Dungey said this was a lie.
In his closing submissions, he said: "If anyone did this, it can only have been him."
He said Yarran's girlfriend had been "trying to paint" him in a favourable light in her evidence, when she said he was "great with kids".
The prosecutor referred to the evidence of burns specialist Helen Douglas.
Dr Douglas, a plastic surgeon at Perth Children's Hospital, described the worst of the scalding burns on the girl's hands as "full thickness" or "third degree", where all layers of skin were damaged.
The child lost some fingernails.
Dr Douglas explained how both sides of each hand had deep burns, down to the tendons in some areas, likely caused by "prolonged exposure to heat, commonly immersion".
As photos of the injuries to the girl's hands were shown in court, one of the jurors wept.
Dr Douglas said the injuries were "not consistent with a pull-down splash".
She told the court she had treated many children injured in that way, and if it had occurred, she would have expected burns to the chin, chest or abdomen.
Under questioning from defence lawyer Mark Gunning, Dr Douglas said she had seen lots of "hot noodle burns" which she described as a "very common injury".
When Mr Gunning put it to her that holding hot noodles could have caused the two-year-old's injuries, she said "prolonged contact with anything hot would produce a deep burn".
Yarran will be sentenced in January.
