A Somerset County man has been accused of abusing his newborn daughter -- smashing her head into a bathroom sink and onto a dining room table, bending her leg until he heard it break, and twice using an electric cattle prod on the baby.

Brandon Alan Austill, 21, of Somerset Borough, was charged yesterday with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child and possession of an electric or electronic incapacitation device.

The device, a hand-held prod called the Hot Shot Power-Mite, is used legitimately by dairy farmers, hog producers, and large-animal veterinarians to deliver 4,500-volt shocks to cattle, pigs and other livestock. Its manufacturer warns buyers to keep the Power-Mite away from children.

Mr. Austill is being held at the Somerset County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail. A preliminary hearing was set for next Thursday at 10 a.m. before District Judge Arthur K. Cook.

The infant girl, Candice Austill, suffered broken shin and thigh bones, a broken forearm, facial injuries and two separate skull fractures. She was airlifted to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Oct. 31 for treatment. Candice was later released from Children's Hospital and is now in foster care, said Somerset Borough Police Chief Randy Cox.

"She's obviously in a stage of healing that would permit Children's to discharge her, which is positive," said Chief Cox. "There are no physical injuries she's suffering that won't heal."

Police say the abuse occurred over a period of seven weeks, beginning shortly after Mr. Austill and the baby's mother, Briana Dawn Clark, took 4-day-old Candice home from the hospital on Sept. 11. Ms. Clark has not been charged with a crime, said Chief Cox, but the investigation is continuing.

According to the affidavit, Mr. Austill, a construction worker, admitted to "forcefully smashing his infant child's head onto a bathroom sink, smashing the infant's head onto a dining room table, bending the infant's leg over his [Mr. Austill's] shoulder and hearing it break, forcefully removing the infant from a crib by its leg, causing injury to the infant's left cheek of the face in a bathtub and twice using a Power-Mite Hot Shot electric prod on the infant."

Mr. Austill told police that on a number of occasions, he could not comfort the newborn or get her to stop crying.

He and Ms. Clark took Candice to Somerset Hospital on Oct. 31, then followed her to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where medical staff discovered that the baby's broken bones were at various stages of healing and had occurred during separate incidents.

According to the affidavit, the couple initially reported that their daughter's injuries happened as a result of an accidental fall. But that explanation was immediately dismissed because of the newborn's "young age and lack of motor function and physical ability."

Chief Cox called Candice Austill the youngest abuse victim he has encountered in his career. Some people, he said, are not emotionally equipped to be parents, and they reach their "snapping point" early and easily.

"But there just seems to be such a level of intent and malice in this one that it just sets it apart," he said.