A dad who drunkenly fell asleep on top of his distressed nine-year-old daughter, trapping her underneath him for an hour, has been admonished in court.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his children, had been looking after his daughter and her younger brother at the time of the incident.
He drank so much that he ended up falling asleep on top of the girl’s legs and could not be roused as the distressed youngsters frantically tried to wake him and lift him off.
The incident, which happened in April 2020, resulted in injury to his daughter and caused both children fear and alarm.
Court told of alarming incident
Fiscal depute Emma Petersen previously told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that the dad was the only adult present at his Aberdeenshire home and was “consuming alcohol to excess”.
“The daughter was sitting on the sofa in the living room,” Ms Petersen said. “The accused fell asleep on top of her legs due to his level of intoxication.
“This caused her to be trapped underneath the accused. She made several attempts to rouse the accused with no success.
“The son was also present and he became distressed about the situation. He also attempted to rouse the accused to no avail.”
Filmed ordeal on phone
Part of the incident was recorded on the daughter’s mobile phone, during which the son can be heard “crying and repeatedly asking the accused for a bottle of milk”.
The dad didn’t respond to any of the prompts and his daughter was only freed around one hour later after the children managed to lift up his legs and get her out.
The girl suffered bruising to her legs.
Her dad pled guilty to wilfully neglecting his children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to health by becoming “unconscious and insensible”.
Representing himself in court at the time he denied having a drinking problem, apologised and said his “irresponsible” behaviour stemmed from lockdown and childcare pressures.
Sentencing on the man, whose address was given as Aberdeenshire, was deferred for a year in order for him to be of good behaviour.
Sheriff Margaret Hodge was told that the 43-year-old had used that time to enact significant “positive change and stabilisation”.
Circumstances have improved
His defence agent Ian Woodward-Nutt added: “He is in permanent stable employment now. Significant difficulties existed at the time of the offence following the breakdown of his relationship.
“He has adjusted his use of alcohol and there had been constant and significant improvement in his mental health.”
Admonishing him, Sheriff Margaret Hodge said while the charge “did cause concern for obvious reasons”, she noted he had addressed his alcohol use, engaged with a community payback order and “generally improved his circumstances”.
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