Wellington, April 19: A New Zealand father was convicted by a court Monday for leaving a baby with a heart condition locked in a car while he visited a club.
Wayne Schwamm, 42, left his 18-month-old son in the car for about 40 minutes before a passer-by alerted police who broke a window and rescued the baby, who was taken to hospital. They found his father in the nearby strip club.
Schwamm pleaded guilty in court to leaving the child without reasonable supervision in Wellington on April 13 and was fined 200 dollars (142 US).
The baby was not reported to have suffered any serious harm.
Lawyer John Tannerhill said Schwamm had gone to the strip club about 2.30 am to pick up a friend who worked there, but he found out the friend had to work overtime.
Although he stayed longer than intended, Schwamm had not indulged in “fantasies of desire”, Tannerhill said.
“On the surface this appears quite sinister but it is not,” he said.
–Agencies