The sentencing of a man who placed a baby in a tumble dryer before later carrying out a “monstrous” attack on her has been deferred.
Thomas Dunn, 25, was last month found guilty of culpable and reckless conduct by placing the child in the dryer and closing the door, causing the machine to activate.
He was also found guilty of leaving the 13-month-old with brain dysfunction and bleeding between the skull and brain after striking her at least twice in a separate incident.
Both incidents took place at an address in Arbroath while Dunn was trusted with looking after the tot — a friend’s daughter.
He appeared in Edinburgh before Lord Brodie after the case was remitted to the city’s High Court by a Dundee judge who ruled the local sheriff court’s sentencing powers were “not adequate” to deal with the severity of the case.
However, the case will now be heard on August 8 at Glasgow High Court after Lord Brodie granted a request for deferral by defence agent Niall McCluskey, who said Criminal Justice Social Work Reports were not yet available.
He had been found guilty of the offences, which took place over a two-week period from December 18, 2017 to January 8 2018, by a jury following a five-day trial at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Dunn, originally from Hamilton but now living at St Ninians Place, Brechin, had denied the charges and claimed he had “assisted” her into machine when she started to climb in and was only “mucking around”.
In the later attack on January 8, he had claimed to have found her lying limp and offered no explanation for how she sustained her injuries, described by doctors as similar to those seen in a car crash.
