Microwave father seeking to keep parental rights

The father sentenced to 25 years in a Texas prison for severely burning his two-month-old daughter in a microwave oven is declining to give up his parental rights.

“He loves his baby,” Sam Cammack III, the attorney for Joshua Mauldin, said in a story published online in the Houston Chronicle. “He wants to be part of Ana’s life.”

The mother, Eva Mauldin, has relinquished her parental rights, Mr Cammack said.

Ana suffered second- and third-degree burns to her left ear, cheek, hand and shoulder and has required several skin grafts. Part of her left ear had to be amputated.

Mauldin, convicted of injury to a child, was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison and fined US$10,000 (€6,337). Jurors rejected his claim that he was insane when he put his daughter in the oven.

A custody hearing is scheduled for April 22. Child welfare officials are looking favourably on a plan for Ana’s foster parents, Heather and Jeremy Croxton, to adopt her.

“They have taken amazing care of her,” agency spokeswoman Gwen Carter said. “They love her; she loves them. We have regular contact with them, and we feel comfortable that she is safe.”