Couple jailed for subjecting baby to ‘horrific’ torture

A TEENAGE couple who subjected their baby boy to 50 days of torture, during which his legs, wrists and ribs were broken, were beginning custodial sentences yesterday.

Samuel Chamberlain and Kankamon Sukchuen put their son through nearly two months of abuse at their one-bedroom flat in Redfield, Bristol, the city’s crown court heard.

Chamberlain, 19, will serve a minimum of three-and-a-half years.

Sukchuen, also 19, was sentenced to four years’ youth custody, and disqualified from working with children.

The court heard the injuries were caused when the baby, now six months old, had his fingers bent back, his limbs deliberately twisted and his mouth burned by a hot object.

The couple pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child aged under 16 as well as doing acts tending to pervert the course of justice.

Robert Davies, prosecuting, said the baby suffered a series of assaults or acts of cruelty and one or both defendants were to blame.

The court heard the child suffered displaced fractures of both thigh bones, fractures to his wrists, fractures above and below his knees and above his left ankle, multiple rib fractures, fractures to the spine, haemorrhages to the eyes, and cuts to the tongue.

Mr Davies added the rib fractures were consistent with it being squeezed — which would have caused bleeding to his eyes.

The court heard the leg fractures were the most extensive ever seen by medical staff in 19 years.

But it was not possible to state which defendant caused which injury.

Mr Davies said they lied to medical authorities, social workers and police about the injuries — offering explanations such as seeing him get his hand caught or poking himself in the eye.

Fiona Elder, defending Chamberlain, said he accepted he caused some injuries but never accepted he was solely to blame.

Rosaleen Collins, defending Sukchuen, said her client had not caused injuries herself or observed any being caused but she had worries and suspicions.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Butterfield said the offences were “horrific” and had to be met with long sentences.