A teenage father who beat his two-year-old daughter and left a handprint on her body has been remanded in custody for sentence by Judge Frank O'Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 19-year-old youth, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting a child at his north Dublin apartment on February 18th. He had been using anabolic steroids for some time before the offence.
The maximum penalty for this crime is a €10,000 fine and/or a seven-year sentence, prosecuting counsel Fergal Foley told the court. Garda David McCarthy, of Santry station, said the toddler had been permitted to stay the night with the youth twice a month. The child was returned a day late to her mother, who noticed she had bruising to her buttocks and forehead.
Garda McCarthy said the girl's mother had been told she was injured from a fall. However, the little girl was examined by a consultant paediatrician at Temple Street hospital where it was found that the bruising was "inflicted rather than accidental", and there was a handprint on one of the child's buttocks.
The youth said in evidence that he had joined a gym about a year before the attack and up until a fortnight before he assaulted his daughter he had been using anabolic steroids.
He told his counsel, Pieter Le Vert, he had been trying to toilet-train his daughter. She accidentally went to the toilet on the floor at which he smacked her on her wrist.
The toddler then slapped him back at which he hit her on her bottom. He denied hitting his daughter on her forehead and said she banged it off a shower cubicle.