A man who beat his two-year-old daughter and left a hand-print on her body has been jailed for four years by Judge Frank O'Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 19-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, admitted assaulting the child at his north Dublin apartment on February 18th, 2005. He had been using anabolic steroids for some time before the offence.
Judge O'Donnell said it was a "very aggressive assault", adding that he didn't know "how you could do this to a child". He described it as an "unprovoked attack on a very young defenceless child - his own offspring, whom he should have been protecting".
The judge said a probation report showed the accused had been a drug addict who "had no wish for treatment" for seven years and that "he was bewildered by people's reaction to the assault".
He suspended the last year of the sentence on conditions and backdated the sentence to February 27th, 2005.
The court heard the toddler had been permitted to stay the night with her father twice a month.
She was returned a day late to her mother who noticed that she had extensive bruising to her buttocks and forehead.
A garda told the court that the girl's mother had been told she was injured from a fall. However, the 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 hand-print on one of the child's buttocks.
He also said the child's mother and grandmother received a threatening telephone call and text message after they reported the matter to the Garda.
The man had 22 previous convictions, mostly for drugs and motoring offences but also one for assault causing harm.
He told his counsel, Pieter Le Vert, that 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 said he did not realise that he would cause so much bruising and that he felt "horrible about it".
He denied hitting his daughter on her forehead and claimed she banged it off a shower cubicle amid "toing and froing."