Babysitter in ‘sadistic’ biting attack on toddler
ASADIST who battered and bit a defenceless toddler he was babysitting until his face was unrecognisable has been jailed.
Nicholas Lessiter, 26, who was bizarrely tricked by girlfriend Rebecca Barnes, 22, into believing the 20-month-old child was his, attacked the child over a four-day period.
Barnes wore headphones while Lessiter fractured the child’s collar bone, bit his right shoulder and elbow, injured his mouth and the back of the throat and left his little body bruised.
The toddler was subjected to repeated physical abuse and when he was returned to his mother he was unrecognisable because of his awful facial injuries.
“His face was so swollen that he did not look like her little boy,” Judge
Niclas Parry told Mold Crown Court. “When taken to hospital the full extent of his injuries was revealed.”
The judge said Lessiter was reponsible for those injuries and that there were elements of sadistic behaviour.
The couple had been looking after the boy for four days in April last year while his mother, who believed Barnes was being a good friend by offering to help care for her son, was sorting out her new flat.
Anna Pope, prosecuting, said that whatever mechanism was used to inflict the throat injuries, the boy’s breathing would have been hindered.
His mother, in a victim impact statement she read to the court, said: “I will never forget what these people did to my son.
“My decision to leave him in her care was the worst decision of my life. I deeply regret it. It will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Lessiter, of Gwynfryn Avenue, Rhyl, was sentenced to five years in jail and Barnes, of Mwrog Street, Ruthin, to two and a half years.
Judge Parry told the pair, who sobbed throughout much of yesterday’s sentencing hearing, there was “no greater responsibility than that to protect helpless and defenceless very young children”.
Judge Parry said Barnes had failed to protect the child. It was plausible that she failed to do so because of Lessiter’s controlling behaviour towards her.
“But the fact remains that you manufactured the bringing of this child into that home,” he said.
“You took that child into your home when you knew that Lessiter would be present, a man you know was capable of using extreme violence upon you, kicking and biting you. You left that child in his care.”
The judge told her: “You persuaded him that child was his. Your deception went further and you were able to persuade your own mother that the child was her grandson.
“It was your choice to bring that boy into that house.
“Only you could have protected him and taken him from the abuse but you failed to do that.”
The child has appeared to have made a full physical recovery but the psychological harm will never be known, the court heard.
“One hopes that he will never come to know about the cruelty inflicted upon him,” said Judge Parry.
He said the boy’s mother had suffered greatly.
She told the court: “How could I have made such an error of judgement?”
After the attacks her son was taken into local authority care and she was allowed supervised access three times a week.
She said: “When my son needed me most I could not be there to cuddle and comfort him.”
He has since been returned to his mother.
Owen Edwards, for Lessiter, said his client’s limited capacity must have played a part in the offending.
The defendant believed the child was his – he had been subjected “to the most cruel of deceptions”.
Matthew Curtis, for Barnes, said she knew she should have protected the toddler, who could not protect himself.
She was a complex character with psychiatric difficulties, he said, and while it was difficult to comprehend, she believed that the child was hers and Lessiter’s at one stage, the court was told.
Barnes was vulnerable and had been subjected to domestic abuse and had a condition which helped her dissociate herself from what was going on.
Lessiter had admitted child cruelty while Barnes had admitted child cruelty on the basis that she was aware of the injuries but did nothing to help and did not seek medical attention for him.
Both received a life-time ban from approaching the mother and the boy.
A baby the pair had together has since been put up for adoption.