Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
A 10-month-old baby boy sustained “horrendous” water burns to 40 per cent of his body in circumstances that investigators are treating as domestic violence, police allege.
The baby was at home on Castlereagh Street in Penrith on Sunday afternoon with a 23-year-old man, who had been in a relationship with the boy’s mother, Detective Superintendent Brett McFadden told reporters.
Investigators, including officers from the Child Abuse Squad, were contacted by ambulance paramedics who had been called to assist the baby.
The boy remains in a critical condition at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
His mother, who is “very distressed”, is with him.
“This 10-month-old received what I would say are significant and horrendous injuries,” Superintendent McFadden said.
“We understand that some of the injuries relate to burning of the skin – about 40 per cent of the child’s body.
“There are other injuries there that appear to be consistent with blunt force trauma.”
The 23-year-old has been charged with recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm and is expected to appear before Penrith Local Court on Monday morning.
“The biological mother of the child and the 23-year-old male [who] has been arrested have been in a relationship for the last four or five months and for the last few weeks they had been residing together at the Penrith address,” Superintendent McFadden said.
