Man, 20, Gets Nine Years for Burning Girlfriend’s Child

VAN NUYS â€”  A 20-year-old Sherman Oaks man who branded his girlfriend’s toddler with a hot fork was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison for child abuse.

Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Turkat said Christopher Ryan Scott and his girlfriend took the 16-month-old boy to Sherman Oaks Hospital in June, showing doctors red marks that they said the boy had inflicted on himself.

Turkat said 10 second- and third-degree burns--clearly showing the tines of a fork--covered the boy’s chest, back and inner thigh.

Scott denied the attack, Turkat said, but admitted being alone with the victim in the kitchen as the child’s mother took a shower. Scott said he was using a kitchen fork to handle turkey he was heating in a skillet for a sandwich.

Prosecutors filed charges of child abuse causing great bodily injury and torture, which carries a life sentence. Last month, a jury convicted Scott of the abuse, but acquitted him of the torture charge.

Turkat said the child, who was treated in a hospital for more than a week, would probably not have permanent scarring.

Scott’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Noel Russo, said during the trial that the child’s mother was the likely culprit.

Scott had been living with the child’s mother for 10 months before the attack, according to his probation report.

Scott sat quietly as Russo argued for probation.

Superior Court Judge Sandy Kriegler, however, imposed the maximum sentence. “We’re talking about a young child, a defenseless child,� Kriegler said.

Scott will not be eligible for parole until 2005.