Robinvale dad jailed after giving two-year-old daughter brain injury from beating

A Robinvale father who beat his toddler so badly she was left with severe brain damage will be eligible for parole in 2025.

A Robinvale father who viciously beat his two-year-old daughter so severely she was left with brain damage will serve at least five years in jail.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to charges of recklessly causing injury, possessing methamphetamine and cannabis in Mildura’s County Court earlier this year and was recently handed a seven year jail sentence with a five year non-parole period.

The court heard his daughter, whose identity is also suppressed, will require lifelong care following the brutal attack.

The mother of the victim had organised for her former partner to go to her home in regional Victoria to care for their daughter because she needed support.

The mother later told police her daughter was healthy when she left him with her father.

The court heard the man was using methamphetamine and cannabis while caring for his daughter and the child would stay in another room while he was coming off drugs.

After a week with the man the child stopped responding to him. She wouldn’t eat or smile at him, the court heard.

Eventually this made the father angry.

The man messaged his partner, telling her his daughter was: “Not like me, she is stupid dumb, not like (my) kids … it‘s dead weight like she is a kid from the down the road.”

About two days later the man was seen yelling at his daughter and pushed her on to a chair.

On another day a relative walked into the man’s bedroom and saw the child lying on the bed screaming while the father sat at the edge of the bed.

The child was lying on her back with her hands clenched to her chest, “stiff as a board with her mouth open and tongue going in and out.

Her eyes were half open with only the white part of her eyes visible”.

The relative told the man to take her to the hospital but the father said: “I don‘t give a f--- mate. I don‘t get paid until Friday. Look at the retard.”

When the relative insisted, the man told him to “f--- off”.

Later that day the man texted his father that “I f---ing flogged this c--- couple days ago dad. Wasn‘t in control of myself I hurt him (sic) bad dad just needed to talk to my father.”

After time served, the man will be eligible for parole in 2025.