Mum's joy over 'monster' appeal | National News | Breaking National News in Australia

A SUNSHINE Coast mother feels safer knowing the man who bashed and raped her toddler in a Maroochydore alleyway, and left him for dead, is behind bars until at least 2018.

The jail sentence imposed on the 24-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, was increased from nine years to 12 years after the Daily lobbied the Attorney-General to lodge an appeal that the sentence was too lenient.

“That’s the best news, I’m absolutely stoked. I feel a lot happier knowing that he’s going away for a lot longer,” the boy’s mum told the Daily.

“At least I know the kids are safe for a long time.

“There’s no going back, we can only go forward and look to the future now.”

The mum said her son began kindergarten this year and “loves it”. “He’s doing well,” she said.

“We had a hospital scan in November and they had to operate again on the bowel because it had twisted.”

The boy was raped with a sharp object.

But he’s up and running around again now.

“I have another (baby) on the way, due in August, and he is very excited about having a brother or sister.”

The mother had left her son in the accused man’s care for a short time while she visited a store on Aerodrome Road on May 12, 2008.

When the mother left the store, she saw the man running away but no pram.

When she chased him, he told her the boy was involved in a hit-and-run car crash.

After a desperate search, the mother found her son down an alleyway, lying between a shed and a fence, covered in bark and sticks.

The child was bloody, blue and unconscious. His airway was blocked by pieces of woodchip and bark.

The boy went to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane where he was "paralysed, sedated and ventilated" to manage his head injuries and other severe bruising.

When the boy developed a fever, staff performed a laparotomy and found his bowel had been pierced when a sharp object penetrated him.

The life-threatening injury resulted in several surgeries and the boy being forced to wear a colostomy bag for more than six months.

He also had F-shaped bruises on his body, believed to be from a piece of iron.

The accused man initially stuck to his hit-and-run story but eventually told police he had become angry with the child, “got the sh**s” and “just clicked out”.

He admitted he repeatedly punched the child in the head, held him by the throat, threw him against a wall and let him drop to the ground.

Defence counsel had tendered a report detailing the man’s previous treatment for anger and impulse control, alcohol abuse, excessive coca-cola consumption, reduced empathy and occasional auditory and visual hallucinations.

Doctors, who noted a history of bi-polar in the man’s family but did not believe the man was suffering a mental illness, believed the man’s condition could improve if he ameliorated his intake of solf drink, alcohol and marijuana.