Wayne Schwamm. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The mother whose baby was left outside a strip club has spoken out from a Women's Refuge.
Wayne Schwamm, a 42-year-old baker, was this week fined $200 for leaving his baby son locked in a car outside The Mermaid strip bar and brothel in Wellington.
He says he was waiting
for one of the women there, a family friend, who was going to help him look after the baby.
But the child's mother, Asheley, is sceptical. She claims he "made up" the story about the The Mermaid club worker.
Twenty-month-old Cassius was taken from Schwamm by police and put in the care of Asheley, who had moved into a refuge after he allegedly assaulted her.
Now, Cassius is in Hutt Hospital after suffering serious burns caused by a cup of hot tea.
He is expected to be flown to the Starship children's hospital in the next few days for skin grafts.
Asheley said she had been drinking a cup of tea as she watched Schwamm on television explain why he had left Cassius in the car.
When she turned away for a moment, to tidy up, the baby grabbed at the cup and tipped it over himself.
"It all spilt on his chest ... and he cried and cried," she said.
"I knew something was wrong so I took off his clothes. He was burnt really badly."
While Cassius and his mother are at Starship in Auckland, Schwamm is to appear in Palmerston North District Court next week charged with common assault on Asheley.
Asheley alleges he hit her in January.
"He always liked me to follow his instructions to bring up the baby," she said.
"He told me I had to listen to him teach me how to bring up the baby. He just disagreed about what I did as a mother.
"We are very different. I am Chinese and he is European - he is a Kiwi. We have different ways of bringing up babies."
