Man pleads guilty to burning 10-month-old baby in bath

A man has pleaded guilty to burning a 10-month-old baby in a western Sydney home.

Atare Tepania entered the plea in Penrith District Court in front of the baby’s mother today.

Court documents reveal she left the boy with the 24-year-old in November 2015 while she went to the nearby shops.

Tepania noticed the baby boy crying and picked him up by one arm.

He put him in the bath, turned the hot water tap on, then left the room to have a cigarette.

"The accused was alerted by the loud screams of the victim, returned to the bathroom and observed the victim lying on his back underneath the tap with his feet in the air in a shallow pool of accumulated water."

He once again grabbed one of the boy's arm but lost his grip and he hit the bathroom floor.

Police say he took him to a bedroom and tried to force a bottle in the boy's mouth, leaving him with injuries to his gums and lips.

He continued to scream and that's when Tepania hit him at least once.

When the mother returned she said Tepania had a strange look on his face and told her not to call an ambulance.

She ignored him and paramedics arrived a short time later.

The boy was taken to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead with burns to 40 percent of his body, facial and head injuries as well as a fractured elbow.

He spent 26 days there.

Tepania later told police "I was really hungover… really bad" and "I don’t know what I was thinking. I ------ up."

He said he had been drinking and also tested positive to the drug methamphetamine.

Tepania was supposed to face trial today but pleaded guilty to two charges of recklessly cause grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He will face a sentence hearing in October.