Father charged after young son gets sunburn

Bobby J. Jones, 27, is charged with criminal abuse for allegedly allowing his son to sustain a severe sunburn. The boy received second-degree burns.

Jones pleaded not guilty on Wednesday. He was being held in the Madison County jail on a $7,500 cash bond.

Police say Jones' 2-year-old son was outside for an hour and a half Sunday with no apparent sun protection.



The child had golf ball-sized blisters on his shoulders when his mother came to retrieve him from Jones' home. He was also burned on his face, chest, back and stomach, police say.

Child abuse experts say it's rare for an abuse case to centre on a severe sunburn. "I have never seen a case in particular where the charge was overexposure to the sun," said Priscilla Pappadia, executive director of the Connecticut-based Lawyers for Children America.

Under Kentucky law, a person is guilty of first-degree criminal abuse if he or she intentionally abuses or allows the abuse of a child 12 or younger and therefore causes serious physical injury, places the child in a situation that may cause serious physical injury or causes torture, cruel confinement or cruel punishment.

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