Woman burned granddaughter for urinating on couch

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Gretta Feil

An Indiana woman was sentenced to 12 years in prison for burning and disfiguring her granddaughter after she urinated on a couch.

Gretta Feil, 50, of Lebanon, will also serve four years of probation on two felony counts of aggravated battery for the “horrific abuse” she inflicted upon her granddaughter.

She put the 4-year-old girl in the hot shower as punishment.   Police say the temperature of the water reached 137 degrees.

Feil also hit the child with a wooden backscratcher.  The girl suffered bleeding under her skin and bruised organs from the force of the blows.

“Her physical scars are healing, and we hope that this sentence today helps the healing process for her emotional scars,” Special Victim’s Prosecutor Heidi Jennings said in a statement. “The evidence suggested Gretta Feil’s abuse of this child was beginning to escalate.”

Feil, who was watching the girl and her brother after picking them up at her son’s Alabama home in early April, was arrested after child welfare workers found third-degree burns on her granddaughter’s face, scalp, and genitals.  She pleaded guilty in September.

Feil had previously claimed her granddaughter was burned after getting into “her cream and lotions” inside her apartment.

“We are thankful to every person who intervened and saved this child’s life, especially the neighbors who did not ignore the child’s cries of distress,” Jennings said in a statement.