Babysitter charged in scalding

LYNN – A judge ordered $3,000 cash bail for a city man who allegedly fell asleep while running a bath for two toddlers who were subsequently scalded to the point where police said pieces of skin were floating in the bathtub.”I understand the defendant would like to say this involved an accident, but he was in a position of responsibility,” Essex Assistant District Attorney Aimee Conway said in Lynn District Court Wednesday. “He let the water run and left them alone to essentially take a nap, and, as a result of that, the children suffered severe burns, the children are in the hospital … the battle’s just beginning for them.”Charles Collins-Robinson, 21, was arrested on a warrant and charged with two counts of child endangerment; on Wednesday. He pleaded not guilty to the charges later that afternoon in Lynn District Court.Lynn Police, Fire and EMS workers responded at 7:15 a.m. last Wednesday to an apartment at 263 Essex St. and found two young brothers, ages 2 and 3, had been badly scalded.Conway told the court that the top layer of skin on the boys’ bodies had been burned off in several places and that there appeared to be skin floating on the water in a three-quarters-filled bathtub.The children were taken by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital and subsequently transferred to Shriners Hospital, Boston.Collins-Robinson, the children’s babysitter, initially told police he had left the children in the bathtub with the water running to use the bathroom in his own apartment across the hall, according to Conway and police reports.Collins-Robinson said he was gone only a couple of minutes and when he returned, he found the water was too hot and the brothers had redness and blistering.Conway said Collins-Robinson contacted police the following day, however, and changed his story. Collins-Robinson said that he had started the water and then gone to lie down on a couch and must have fallen asleep. Collins-Robinson told police he awoke to the children’s screams and found them with redness and peeling skin. Collins-Robinson contacted the children’s father and the father called police, according to officials.Conway said a doctor reported the 2-year-old had second- to-third-degree burns on 30 percent of his body, including his back, arms and top of his head. Conway said the child is expected to be in the hospital for a month. The 3-year-old child had similar burns on 60 percent of his body, including his back, chest, legs and face, and is expected to remain in the hospital for two months, Conway reported.She noted that investigators measured the hot water coming from the spigot of the bathtub and it reached 131 degrees Fahrenheit a minute after being turned on – “well above” the maximum legal limit of 112 degrees for that kind of bathtub.A report by Lynn Police Officer Roger Tinkham “noted it took some force to turn the water on in the tub and also that it took very little force to move the knob once the water was turned on.” Tinkham also noted the children’s father praised Collins-Robinson as being “a great help to him” and said the defendant “loves his boys.””He stated that both of his boys were tall and strong enough to reach the knob of the shower,” Tinkham noted. “He stated that the boys were really active and should have been supervised while they were in the tub.”Tinkham also noted that phone records indicate Collins-Robinson called the children’s father at 6:45 a.m., but dispatch was not called until 7:15 a.m.Conway requested Collins-Robinson be held on $10,000 cash bail and that bail be revoked in an open case involving charges of drunken driving, receiving a stolen vehicle; and possession of Class B drugs.Court appointed defense attorney Lance Sobelman said Collins-Robinson was extremely remorseful as he considered the children to be his nephews and the children’s father as his uncle. Collins-Robinson had met the alleged victims when he and the victims’ family had to move after their Western Avenue apartment building