A South Australian court was horrified to learn one young girl was singled out from her siblings by her stepfather for treatment that has been described as ‘cruel and inhumane.’
The girl’s primary school noticed that she had poorer hygiene than her siblings and they soon learned that she wasn’t allowed to eat or even talk to her own family, reports The Courier-Mail.
Instead she was kept in a filthy room where she was not allowed out to the bathroom, and was only let shower once a week. It was also revealed that he forced her to wear plastic bags on her feet ‘because they were so dirty.’
Justice Trish Kelly described the charges as ‘very difficult reading.’
‘This was not a case of neglectful failings by an incompetent parent who could not cope but rather a sustained and targeted course of deprivation and abuse of a young child,’ Justice Kelly said.
The man tried to defend his treatment of the girl, saying she was argumentative and stole food, and says that his prison sentence was ‘manifestly excessive.’
Justice Kelly argued instead that ‘courts must send the message to anyone who abuses a young child’ and that his dangerous behaviour is likely reoccur with other children in his care.
He was sentenced to 8 months in prison, 4 of which are to be served immediately.