A VICTORIAN County Court judge has said drug addicts who abuse their children should lose care of them.

After hearing a plea of guilty from a father who banged his two-year-old son's head against a wooden paling, Judge Frances Hogan yesterday said such "grossly irresponsible" people would be punished.

"A message has to go out to the community that people who are so grossly irresponsible that they use drugs in this fashion, that they should not be in charge of children -- and if they do and they injure them, they will meet condign punishment," Judge Hogan said.

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