A cruel dad today admitted hosing down his eight-year-old son with cold water - because he'd used a drawer as a toilet.

The 30-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, forced the boy to stand still as he blasted him with water.

His ordeal last two hours 20 minutes during which a witness said he wailed like "an animal".

When police turned up they found the child in the front garden "petrified" and "shivering".

They told him to go inside but he said he couldn't - because his dad had ordered him to stay still.

The man stood in the dock at Margate Magistrates' Court today and pleaded guilty to cruelty towards a child.

He left the court in tears and refused to comment.

A woman had called police after witnessing the September 2009 incident in Canterbury.

A woman visiting a friend raised the alarm after hearing the child screaming.

The child has now been taken into local authority care.

His dad was handed a 150-day suspended jail sentence.