A YOUNG man who fed a toddler 16 painkillers and slapped her hard across the face has been jailed for five years by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court.

Gary MacManus, 21, of Carpeaux Close, Chatham, was told by Deputy Judge David Croft QC, he could have killed the little girl.

Describing it as “a terrible thing”, Judge Croft added: “There can be very few greater breaches of trust than treating a two-and-a-half-year-old in the way that you did.

“I further believe that you had no idea, and indeed nor did I, that a child’s reaction to paracetamol is likely to be rather better than that of an adult.

“You could have killed that child that night and there is no evidence of any remorse whatsoever.”

At his trial last month a jury of nine women and three men took just under two hours to find MacManus guilty of assault causing actual bodily harm and administering a noxious thing so as to endanger life.

He had denied both charges, as well as two alternative offences of administering a noxious thing with intent to injure and cruelty to a child by wilfully ill-treating her.

He was sentenced to five years for administering a noxious thing so as to endanger life and six months concurrent for ABH.

MacManus had shown no emotion as the verdicts were read out, but at Friday's hearing Judge Croft described him as “someone with a short temper”.

The court heard that MacManus was looking after the girl in November 2003 when she fell ill. She vomited several times and complained her stomach hurt.

By the time she was taken to Medway Maritime Hospital she was said to be drowsy and unresponsive.

Doctors noticed red marks and bruising to her left cheek and ear. The jury was told that the injuries had not been caused accidentally and the prosecution said it was “unbelievable” to suggest that the child had removed all the tablets from their pack and fed them to herself.

Police later recovered the empty pill box as well as the instruction leaflet. Both were analysed and found to have only adult fingerprints on them.

An expert concluded that without treatment the girl could have died from the overdose.

Home Office pathologist David Rouse said the likely cause of the marks on the face was a hard slap.

MacManus, who was originally arrested for attempted murder, maintained during his evidence that he had not mistreated the girl. He said she must have taken the paracetamol from a kitchen drawer, believing they were sweets. MacManus added that he did not know how she suffered the injury to her face.

Asked if he could explain how she had taken so much paracetamol, MacManus, a refuse collector, told the court: “I can’t explain it. I didn’t give it to her. I didn’t force her to take it.”

The court also heard that MacManus suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Allister Walker, defending, said there were also “deep-seated psychological problems” as a result of his background.

“It must mitigate his case to some extent,” he argued. “Having been failed so many times, perhaps unsurprisingly he finds himself as a young adult having also failed.”

Mr Walker continued: “He finds it so difficult to appreciate the full extent of the position he is in.

MacManus was not supported in court by his mother. “Her hatred for him was made evident in court, in public, and it cut him to the quick.

In prison he is “living a lie”, said Mr Walker, not telling other inmates what he is inside for and refusing to be put into segregation. MacManus is also said to be a suicide risk.

After the hearing Det Insp Janine Chaney, who is based with the Special Investigations Unit at Rochester, said she was “satisfied” with the sentence.

“These cases are always very difficult and MacManus has always maintained he was the only person in care and control.

“But he systematically gave that child up to 16 tablets and there were at least three blows. He has an extremely volatile temper and once he comes out of prison we will still be managing him as a dangerous person and making sure he has no future contact with children.”

The child spent four to five days in hospital but has since made a full recovery.