A 26-year-old man doused a five-year-old girl in petrol, set her alight and then "stomped" on her to extinguish the flames, police alleged yesterday.
It was up to 10 days after the attack before the girl received professional medical treatment, Wollongong Local Court was told.
A visitor to the house discovered the girl, lying naked from the waist down in the sun in the family backyard.
The girl's wounds - later diagnosed as full thickness or third degree burns - were giving off an offensive odour and her skin had begun to peel off.
The girl's mother and her 26-year-old de facto husband both appeared in court yesterday, charged over the alleged attack, and subsequent lack of treatment.
The man was charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, recklessly causing wounding, taking action that resulted in a physical injury and neglecting a child in his care.
The woman was charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to do so, concealing a serious indictable offence of another person, fail to provide for a child and child neglect.
The mother was refused bail until at least October 22, however the man was given bail on the condition he not see the girl. Police will appeal the man's bail in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday.
The court was told that in early September, the man called the child into the garage of their home before pouring petrol on her legs saying: "Don't scream", then set fire to her with a cigarette lighter. The girl told police he then "stomped" on her to extinguish the flames.
The child said her mother had been sleeping at the time but woke up and put the girl under a warm shower.
Police are uncertain how long the girl suffered with the burns before she was taken to hospital. Documents tendered to the court quoted a doctor saying the wounds were most likely to have been 10 days old when she arrived at Westmead Children's Hospital on September 9, but could have been up to three weeks old.
A specialist at the hospital told police a lay person would have realised the girl required medical treatment "especially as the outer layers of skin began to separate off and leave large areas of raw tissue".
"The (alleged) victim would have been in an extremely high level of pain which would have been unlikely to have been relieved by oral medication," the specialist told police.
The mother and her de facto husband told police the girl set herself on fire when playing in the garage. They said the 26-year-old man ran downstairs when he heard her screaming and rolled her around to extinguish her.
He later allegedly told the girl she would be punished if she ever told anyone what had really happened.
The mother allegedly told police she could smell her daughter's wounds from across the hall but didn't seek medical treatment because she was "scared".
"She was afraid DOCS would remove the victim from her care as she had already had a daughter removed from her care," police said.
The girl's mother allegedly told police they had been treating her wounds with Dettol, Betadine and dressings and giving her adult Nurofen Plus for the pain. Police later found chemist receipts dating back to August 30.
The mother told police her daughter had been unable to walk as the skin on her legs would tear and bleed. Instead the girl was allegedly left to urinate on herself where she lay or was carried to the shower.