He claimed that he loved his son; so why did he hurt him like this...

It’s something we normally associate with the Mothers.

Women so desperate for attention they harm their babies or children in order to get it.

Women so incredibly broken inside, the most innocent of victims suffer.

In 93% of cases it is women. So often that leading medical websites define it by a ‘mothers’ actions.

”This syndrome almost always involves a mother abusing her child by seeking unneeded medical attention for the child. It is rare and poorly understood. The cause is unknown.”

That’s why this case is so unusual.

Yet it is undeniable just as sad, just as horrifying, just as confusing and just as heartbreaking.

The UK has been shocked by a court case involving a young father who made his own son sick in order for Doctors to think he had a serious illness.

He subjected his newborn baby to a series of invasive medical treatments in a bid to convince doctors of the faked sickness.

Ryan Muggleton was just eighteen when the baby was born; the baby’s mother was sixteen.

The teenage father repeatedly took his baby to hospitals in South West England, where he sought medical attention for a series of false complaints.

When the newborn was just nine days old, Muggleton took him to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and complained that the child had stopped breathing.

He later smeared blood on his son’s nappies – telling doctors that the baby’s vomit and faeces had blood in it.

His son was given ultrasound tests, invasive examinations, intravenous antibiotics, a feeding tube, injections, X-Rays and numerous blood tests – when, in fact, there was nothing wrong with him.

His lawyer told the court that Muggleton was suffering from the mental illness Munchausen By Proxy.

The rare disorder involves is the fabrication or intentional production of medical symptoms in another person.

Just recently a Queensland mother pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm for giving her four-year old daughter chemotherapy drugs that she’d purchased over the Internet for almost a year. The mother updated her social media followers with her daughter’s fake illness.

(Read more on that here)

The UK’s Daily Mail Newspaper reports that Ryan Muggleton was sentenced to a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He was known to police, and the media after being one of the youngest people in the UK to ever receive an Anti-Social Behaviour Order in 2006 after six years of terrorising his neighbours.

When sentencing him over the baby’s abuse the Judge told him:

“You were using your tiny little son to gain attention for yourself. You were singularly ill equipped for the heavy responsibility as a parent but this was quite horrible behaviour.

You caused infinite suffering and distress to both your son and your young partner, who thought that her child was suffering from some serious disease. Because of the underlying reasons for this offence and your immaturity it would be quite wrong for me to send you to prison but you need to be punished.”

The Daily Mail reported that the baby was sent to a foster home and is now up for adoption.