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Father Who Allegedly Left Child In Car So He Could Visit Pub Charged

"He was crying, he had wet himself in the car, poor thing."
Police comforted the child after rescuing him.
Channel 9
Police comforted the child after rescuing him.

A man will face court after he allegedly left his three-year-old child in a hot car during a heatwave so he could go to the pub.

A bystander, Yagoona barber Issa Khadem, has been hailed as a hero for alerting police after he saw the distressed child locked inside the black car in the south-west Sydney suburb over the weekend, when NSW was undergoing an unprecedented heatwave.

Police smashed the window and treated the boy for dehydration, while the toddler's father was reportedly found drinking at a nearby pub and was arrested. It will also be alleged the man had left his two-year-old son unsupervised at his Yagoona home.

"As soon as we saw him, we were like, 'Oh my God, do we break the window, are we allowed to do that?' So we just rang the police straight away," local barber Issa Khadem told 9 NEWS.

"He was crying, he had wet himself in the car, poor thing."

Facts about vehicles on hot days:

  • On a hot day the temperature inside a parked car can rise to 30-40 degrees above the outside temperature -- if it's a 30 degree day, the temperature inside a car can exceed 70 degrees Celsius.
  • These high temperatures inside a closed vehicle can be reached within as few as 5 minutes. The temperature can peak within as few as 15 minutes.
  • The temperature inside a closed vehicle rises when the airflow decreases, making breathing inside the vehicle very difficult.
  • Having the window down slightly will only cause a small drop in temperature inside the car - there is no safe way to leave a child in an unattended vehicle.
  • The temperature inside a closed vehicle will be slightly higher if the car is dark in colour and if the car has large amounts of glass.

A 42-year-old Yagoona man was charged with leaving a child unsupervised in a car.

Family and Community Services (FACS) were also notified of the incident, police said.

The man was refused bail and is due to appear before Parramatta Local Court on Monday.

ey Barbour

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