A man who burnt his two-year-old son's face with boiling water and fractured it has been given a two-year suspended sentence.
Ese Erujaroh (35), originally from Nigeria but with an address at Park Lodge Hotel on North Circular Road, Dublin 7, pleaded guilty in 2002 to assault causing harm to his son on July 12th, 2001.
Ese Erujaroh had his sentence adjourned on a previous occasion so that the court could assess what progress he made in anger-management courses run by the health board.
The Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard then that his two sons had been taken into foster care following this incident and a third son, born later, was also taken into care. They are still in foster care but the social services hoped the family could be reunited in due course.
Judge Yvonne Murphy was told Erujaroh came to Ireland in 2000 and sought asylum with his wife after he witnessed his brother's death when his house was burnt down in the Nigerian civil war.
He has a temporary work permit as a kitchen porter and is doing a FAS course training as a forklift driver.
Juge Murphy said the work permit appeared to have taken some of the pressure off him. "I accept that he must have had a difficult time in Nigeria but nothing justifies the assaults he committed on his young sons," she said.
Garda Declan Conlon told prosecuting counsel, Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC, the offences came to light after the hotel receptionist noticed some blistering on the left side of the child's face. Erugaroh's wife revealed her husband had put the child's face in boiling water and banged his head off the wall.
Gardaí were called, and on later examination, the boy was discovered to have a fractured skull; two lumps on his head, one of which had a cut; a swollen eye; scratches to his chest wall; and marks on his lower limbs.