His mother, 27, and her partner, 34, who were both drug and alcohol abusers, subjected him to multiple beatings and repeated punishments.
They repeatedly poured neat salt into his mouth, causing him to vomit.
Daniel was also subjected to a “cold water punishment” in which he was held under water to the point of unconsciousness, the judge said, adding that the boy’s six year old sister had witnessed it.
The couple regularly locked the little boy inside a bare box room with no toys, removing the inner door handle so he could not escape and making him to go the toilet on his bed.
But the judge said the “particularly grave aggravating feature” of the case was the “chronic and systematic starvation” that they subjected him to.
Daniel’s sister smuggled him food because he was so hungry, while the little boy was forced to scavenge for food from other children’s lunch boxes or from rubbish bins.
The judge said Daniel died after a “brutal assault” by shaven headed Krezolek, just after the child was again given salt and held beneath the water.
The pair failed to call for an ambulance for 33 hours, during which time they looked on the Internet for medical advice as he lay unconscious in his box room.
An autopsy found 23 injuries on his emaciated body.
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