Man 'showed no emotion' after putting toddler in tumble dryer and turning it on, court hears

Thirteen-month-old girl ‘wouldn’t stop crying’ after incident

A man accused of putting a 13-month-old girl in a tumble dryer and switching it on showed “no emotion at all”, a court heard.

Thomas Dunn. 25, even tried to prevent the child’s mother from taking her out of the machine at his flat in Arbroath near Dundee in Scotland, it is claimed.

Prosecutors claim Dunn endangered the toddler’s life during the incident in December 2017.

The child’s mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, broke down in tears as she described the child’s screams to a jury at Dundee Sheriff Court.

She told the jury: “I was standing doing the dishes and he was joking about putting her in the tumble dryer. I didn’t think that he was being serious.

“I heard a door close and then I heard the rotation and I turned around and I saw her in it.”

The mother added: “He said he didn’t realise the tumble dryer was on but I heard the flick of the switch.

“I tried to grab her out of the tumble dryer and he wouldn’t let me.”

She described hearing two “thuds” before Dunn removed the child from the machine.

The mother said her child “wouldn’t stop crying” after she was taken out of the machine.

Asked how Dunn appeared, she said: “There was no emotion at all.

“I was shocked that there wasn’t. I was really angry.”

Asked why she had left her child in Dunn’s care after the tumble dryer incident, she said tearfully: “I don’t have an answer.

“At that point I felt like no-one was helping me and I was just really struggling.”

The witness described Dunn as a friend who had looked after her girl on two occasions previously.

Dunn, of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, denies three charges of assaulting the child between December 2017 and January 2018.

On one occasion he is accused of repeatedly striking her on the head and body, hitting her against an unknown object or objects and biting her on the arm.

Dunn is also said to have messaged the mother on 8 January 2018 to say she had hurt her nose after banging into her buggy.

During the exchange he wrote: “She’s so miserable since she hurt her nose, it’s a wee shame.”

Dunn also denies assaulting a young boy on various occasions between April 2015 and January 2018 by placing a hand over his mouth and pinching his nose, restricting his breathing.

The case continues.

Additional reporting by Press Association