Child bitten and scalded with boiling water: Fife woman sentenced
A Fife woman has been sentenced for biting a small child on the body and leaving him near hot water, which resulted in him being badly burned.
The child has needed skin grafts for his injuries, Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard.
Kayleigh Glover (22), of Gilfillan Road, Dunfermline, previously admitted that on 7th August last year she wilfully ill-treated and neglected a child in her care by biting him on the body to his injury and leaving him unattended with hot water whereby he sustained significant burns on his body.
Depute fiscal Claire Kennedy said police were contacted by child protection officers from NHS Fife on 8th August.
She said the child had received second degree burns on his skin, which was peeling and bleeding on his hands and feet following an incident.
When the boy was examined a bite mark was also found.
When police and social workers spoke to Glover, she said that she had filled the baby bath using a kettle as she didn’t have any hot water at the time.
She poured the water into the baby bath and went back into the kitchen. She heard the child screaming and when she went back the baby bath was on its side.
“It seemed the child had tipped over the baby bath,” added the depute.
Glover said she bit the child after he bit her. She said it was not intended to injure him but to correct his behaviour.
Defence solicitor Brian Tait said, “The child has had to undergo skin graft operations for the burns he received.
“She should have known to put the cold water in first. The child was in the sitting room and when she turned around he had got in and turned it over.”
Sheriff Simon Collins commented, “I can’t see how she could conceivably have thought it would be appropriate to bite a child of that age.”
The solicitor said his client was pregnant and asked for the sheriff to consider admonishing her.
He replied, “Not a chance, not a chance. It’s an extremely serious matter that has led to serious injury to a child.”
The sheriff imposed a community payback order with 140 hours of unpaid work.
