A young father who left his young daughter on the side of a busy road to get revenge after the child’s mother went away for a night has been sentenced to three years in prison, reports RTE.
The man, whose name has not been released to protect the victim’s identity, then took pictures of the two-year-old before sending the pictures to her mother and driving away.
The child was found crying, cold and scared at 5am by two passers-by.
Judge John Aylmer put the incident at the top of the scale for such offences, saying the child was “exposed to significant risk of death or injury”, reports RTE.
The defendant, who is in his 20s, appeared before Letterkenny District Court in County Donegal where he pleaded guilty to charges of child abuse.
Garda Sergeant Frank McDaid from Letterkenny Garda Station laid out details of the horrific incident in court.
To their horror, at the entrance to a construction site, they found a small child in socks and bare feet, holding a bottle of baby milk.
They immediately started knocking on the doors of local houses, thinking that the child had left one of the houses by accident.
However, no one answered the little girl and the Gardai were contacted, reports RTE.
The child was quickly placed in a squad car and taken under as it was cold.
A woman later called Garda station and explained that her daughter was the missing child and that she had been in her father’s care earlier in the night.
The court heard that the man was jealous because his ex-partner was out of the company and called the woman at least 30 times threatening to abandon the child.
At 4:30 a.m., the husband threatened his ex-partner that he would leave the child if she did not tell him where she was.
The man finally carried out his threat, but took a photo of the child standing alone by the side of the road and sent it to her mother and sister before driving off.
A full investigation was launched, when a video camera was found which showed the man driving off and leaving the child alone.
Guards arrested the accused and when he confronted him he told them: “Aye, I was expecting this silly thing,” reports RTE.
A victim impact statement on behalf of the child’s mother said the child still struggles to be with other people and will only stay with her and her parents.
The young woman said neither her daughter nor herself had gone through anything so traumatic, but she said they would get through it.
The court was also told that the young man had not seen his daughter since the incident.
The defendant’s lawyer, Ms Fiona Crawford, said her client was rightly ashamed of what he had done and was very remorseful.
Ms Crawford said her client admitted he had used the child as a pawn in a jealous relationship and there was no excuse for that, reports RTE.
“The mood got it”
Ms Crawford said: “He had lost the head and temper got at him. He was taking matters out on his child. She would have been scared and confused. There is no excuse and he is so disappointed, disgusted and ashamed of himself,” reports RTE.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Aylmer said he put the incident at the high end of the pre-mitigation scale and deserved a five-year sentence.
However, because the defendant had entered an early plea and cooperated fully, he reduced the sentence to four years in prison.
Judge Aylmer also found that the defendant was remorseful, had a high level of trust before the incident and that this incident was completely out of character.
The man had no previous convictions for similar offenses and only a previous conviction for a simple drug offence.
The defendant was also being treated for depression at the time, but was not taking his medication and was acting out of “purely selfish reasons” in a bad mood, reports RTE.
In all those circumstances, including the needs identified by the Parole Board, Judge Aylmer said he would be serving the final 12 months of the four-year sentence.
Judge Aylmer also ordered the defendant to name any sexual partners or their children within 12 months of his release.
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