‘Child in freezer’ claim man cleared

Mohammed Hussain, 48, was said to have closed the lid on the girl on one occasion and dangled the terrified child with half of her body inside another time.

The restaurant dishwasher was also accused of beating a girl with a stick, slapping and hitting another girl with a sandal and belt and hitting a young boy with a coat hangar.

A jury at Sheffield Crown Court took four hours to clear Hussain of seven offences of child cruelty and five lesser alternative charges of battery. He was found guilty of one offence of battery, hitting a girl with a sandal.

He was also cleared of assaulting a woman causing her actual bodily harm.

Judge Robert Moore ordered pre-sentence reports and told Hussain: “I’m looking to see if there is some kind of thoughtful sentence which will show you some better ideas on parenting and discipline.”

The woman who claimed she was assaulted told the court she witnessed the freezer incidents.

She said: “He put the little girl in the deep freezer. I asked him: “What if she died? What did she do to you? Is this how you treat children?

“He promised not to do it again. But he did it again. I told him if I hadn’t been watching he would have killed her.”

She said the second time the girl came out of the freezer “crying, frightened and she was shivering”. She had to push the man aside to grab the child.

A 15-year-old girl told the court: “He’s just really selfish. He doesn’t care about kids.”

She said Hussain used to pick on the younger children for no reason. “It was just when he was angry if they were doing something, when they do little things wrong. He just hit them for little things.”

During a week-long trial Hussain, from Sheffield, repeatedly denied ever putting the girl into the freezer.

Hussain will be sentenced next month for the one offence of which he was found guilty.