Man charged over toddler's death

AUSTRALIA: Australian police on Sunday charged a man with manslaughter over the mysterious death of an Indian toddler whose body was found dumped by the side of a road.

Gurshan Singh's body was found in long grass beside an isolated road in Melbourne's north on Thursday night. An initial autopsy on the child, who was in Australia with his parents, was inconclusive.

Police allege that a part-time taxi driver who had been sharing a house with the boy and his family was responsible for his death.

"Gursewak Dhillon, 23, has been charged with one count of manslaughter by criminal negligence," senior constable Marty Beveridge said in a statement.

Dhillon was refused bail at an out-of-sessions court hearing during which Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles accused him of placing the boy unconscious but still alive in the boot of his car. "He then drove up to at least three hours with the child in the boot of the car, eventually stopping at Oaklands Junction, where he placed the child from the boot into the grass and did not check to see if the child was alive," Iddles alleged.

Iddles did not mention how the boy came to be unconscious. Dhillon, who lived at the same Melbourne address as the three-year-old, his parents and six others, appeared calm throughout the hearing, the AAP news agency reported.

The toddler disappeared from a suburban house on Thursday afternoon while his mother was taking a shower and his father was at a nearby library. His body was found by a council worker about six hours later around 30 kilometres (20 miles) away.

Melbourne, Monday, AFP