Bundaberg farmhand pleads guilty to child cruelty against toddler

A regional Qld farm worker is facing deportation after his sickening violent abuse of a 12-month-old girl left her with serious injuries.

A Bundaberg farmhand is facing deportation over his “abhorrent” abuse of a 12-month-old girl which left here with multiple broken bones, bleeding her skull and brain, and pelvic injuries.

A Bundaberg farmhand is facing deportation over his “abhorrent” abuse of a 12-month-old girl which left her with multiple broken bones, bleeding on her brain, and pelvic injuries.

Bundaberg District Court heard authorities were first alerted to the girl’s injuries by a triple-0 call asking for urgent medical attention about 1.50pm on October 25, 2023.

Published remarks from the 27-year-old man’s February 2025 sentencing revealed paramedics arrived to find the girl with bruising on her forehead, the back of her head, around her throat, and on the front of her chest.

There was also a cut between her lower lip and chin and she did not respond to reflex tests on her feet, the court heard.

The man, who was in a relationship with the girl’s mother, told paramedics she had vomited and stopped breathing and – to get her breathing started again – he had held her upside down in the shower and “smacked her on the back”.

The court heard he claimed the injury to the back of her head happened two days earlier when she had been pushed over in a “play fight” with her older brother, and he did not know how her forehead injury happened.

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A Bundaberg farmhand is facing deportation over his “abhorrent” abuse of a 12-month-old girl which left here with multiple broken bones, bleeding her skull and brain, and pelvic injuries.

She was then admitted to hospital at which point his story changed, the court heard.

This version included claims the girl stopped breathing when he was changing her nappy.

It was another man in the house at the time who had held her upside down and smacked her back and the head injuries happened when she first fell 30cm from her bed onto the floor and then slipped on water on the floor in the kitchen the following day, he claimed.

The court heard the girls “constellation” of injuries at admission included “haemorrhaging between her scalp and skull, bleeding between her skull and brain, and retinol haemorrhaging in the context of an occipital fracture” as well as “ a fractured jaw, vertebral fractures, pelvic fractures … significant bruising to her head and neck, abrasions to the front of her neck and genital injuries.”

In total there were 17 fractures to her spine, the court heard.

She was eventually transferred to the Queensland Childrens’ Hospital, where she stayed for six days.

The 27-year-old, a Vanuatu national who had finished Year 7 and had no criminal history, ultimately pleaded guilty at Bundaberg District Court to grievous bodily harm and cruelty to a child, with the court hearing the injuries were likely inflicted two days before the emergency call.

The court heard the girl, who was placed in foster care after her discharge from hospital, now needed monitoring from specialists to determine what, if any, long-term injuries may eventuate from the abuse.

The 27-year-old, a Vanuatu national who had finished Year 7 and had no criminal history, ultimately pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm and cruelty to a child, with the court hearing the injuries were likely inflicted two days before the emergency call.

The court was told he had been drinking excessively at the time of his offending.

Judge Jennifer Rosengren called the man’s behaviour “abhorrent”.

She was “completely vulnerable” and “dependent” on him and instead of “nurturing her”, the 27-year-old “treated her with significant violence”, Judge Rosengren said.

The court heard his abuse included a “variety of acts” including shaking her, striking her with force against an object, and “using a powerful and significant force” to put her on the ground in a sitting position which caused pelvic fractures.

It was unknown what caused the abrasions to the girl’s neck but it appeared he had “forced an object such as a bottle into her mouth”.

He was sentenced to five years’ jail, with 480 days of pre-sentence custody declared as time served.

The sentence will be suspended after two-and-a-half years, and Judge Rosengren said the 27-year-old would face deportation upon his release.