A Sydney man who left a baby boy in a bath, with a hot tap running, has been sentenced to a minimum three years in jail.
Atare Tepania was looking after the 10-month-old in 2015, when he went for a cigarette and to charge his mobile phone, before being alerted by the child's screams.
The boy suffered burns to 40 per cent of his body.
Tepania later pleaded guilty to recklessly causing serious injury and assault.
He was looking after the boy while the child's mother was out at the shops.
Affected by drugs and alcohol, Tepania told police he had woken up hung over and was frustrated by the boy's crying.
'I don't know what I was thinking'
He said he had taken him into the bathroom, intending to give him a bath, after noticing that he had vomited.
"I don't know what I was thinking," he said.
The victim spent almost a month in hospital, but remarkably did not require skin grafts.
Judge Robert Sutherland said: "The infant was totally vulnerable."
He said Tepania was suffering "the mother of all hangovers."
"He was clearly in a position of authority and responsibility, as though he were a parent," he said.
But the judge also took into account Tepania's own upbringing, which was characterised by alcohol abuse and neglect.
Before the incident, the court heard he had taken significant steps towards his own rehabilitation.
"His conduct, in effectively drinking himself into oblivion ... may properly be seen as an aberration," the judge said.
The judge imposed a total sentence of five years, with a non-parole period of three years.
With time already served, Tepania could be out of prison by November next year.
