Daily Mail
Friday, August 23, 2013
A sadistic father has been jailed for four years after he beat his newborn daughter and told police he wanted to cause her pain.
Joshua
Stephens, 22, was violent towards the unnamed baby for the first six
weeks of her life before he confessed to his wife about what he had
done.Among the most brutal acts he carried out, Stephens held a pillow over the child's face and forced her head under water while giving her a bath.
Stephens, from Mirfield, West Yorkshire, was told by a judge that he posed a significant risk to the public after hearing that he had slapped the girl 'as hard as you would hit a man'.
After admitting to his wife what he had done, Stephens went to a police station and told officers he had an overwhelming desire to hurt his daughter.
He was jailed for four years and told he must serve an extended licence period of four years upon his release after pleading guilty to cruelty to a child and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Sentencing Stephens on Wednesday, Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: 'It is obvious that these incidents occurred as a result of your sadistic desire to cause pain and distress to your daughter.
'This was a gross breach of trust on a vulnerable child.'