Published: July 03, 2007 11:09 pm            

Dad gets 7 1/2 to 30 years for torturing daughter

SOMERSET — Despite having post-traumatic stress disorder from a horrific childhood and bipolar schizophrenia, Brandon Austill clearly understands the torture he inflicted on his daughter.

“I’ll never be able to take that back. I’ll always love my daughter,” the 21-year-old Somerset man quietly told President Judge John Cascio on Tuesday.

“There’s no way I can make an excuse for what happened.”

Describing Austill’s actions as “systematic torture,” Cascio sentenced him to 71/2 to 30 years in state prison for gruesomely abusing his infant daughter last year, breaking her leg and stunning her with a cattle prod.

While in prison, Austill will have to complete psychiatric treatment.

“Certainly, this is your chance – and this is probably your only chance,” Cascio said.

Authorities said Austill admitted to smashing his 7-week-old daughter’s head into a bathroom sink and dining room table, bending her leg over his shoulder until he heard it break, and twice using a handheld electric prod on her when she would not stop crying.

The abuse took place between Sept. 11 – four days after she was born – and Oct. 31.

The child sustained permanent injuries, including one leg being shorter than the other, Assistant District Attorney Catherine Primavera said. It could not immediately be determined whether the girl remains in foster care or has been returned to her mother.

“He called himself a father, and he didn’t act like a father,” Primavera added.

Somerset psychologist Frank Schmidt said Austill suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his youth. As a child in Tennessee, Austill became a ward of the state after authorities found his family living in deplorable living conditions.

Last year on Myspace.com, Austill repeatedly referred to blood and gothic horror.

“There are two Brandon Austills,” defense attorney Kenneth Johnson said. “There’s the picture police obtained of him, and there’s really the picture of him that I experienced.

“I have not experienced any of the counterculture type of things.

“He’s been very cooperative. He is extremely quiet. He’s a very nervous, almost backward individual. Like I said, I can’t explain it. He’s in a shell.”

Johnson said Austill voluntarily agreed to terminate his parental rights. He is prohibited from having contact with his daughter or unsupervised contact with anyone younger than 18.

He also was ordered to pay $28,000 in fines, $6,004.56 restitution to the state Department of Public Welfare and court costs.

In April, Austill pleaded guilty to six counts each of aggravated and simple assault; eight counts each of reckless endangerment and child endangerment; and two counts each of use of an electric incapacitation device, possession of an instrument of crime and carrying a prohibited weapon.

Austill said he would like to further his education behind bars, perhaps toward a medical career.

“I’ve got plans for my life,” he said.

Cascio said, “The big issue is going to be what you do with treatment. What can you do with the tools you are given to make sure this doesn’t happen again?”

        

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