Gursewak Dhillon, 23, told police he didn't seek medical help because police would find out and it might take him "too far from my dreams" to live in Australia, court documents reveal.
Three-year-old Gurshan was alive when Dhillon placed him unconscious in his car boot and drove around for three hours, before dumping the young child in grass by the roadside on March 4, some 20km from his family's home in Lalor.
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The boy's lifeless body was found by a truck driver about 6.30pm that day.
Indian national and part-time taxi driver Dhillon pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday to manslaughter by criminal negligence.
Dhillon, who lived with Gurshan and his parents, admitted to police that he knocked the toddler unconscious with the front screen door.
"I think he was running towards the door to come in. I didn't even see him. I just heard the noise," he said.
Dhillon said the boy fell to the ground and wasn't moving.
But he didn't want to tell the boy's mother, who was in the shower, because the police would find out and he thought it might affect his residency.
"I was afraid," he said.
He placed Gurshan in the boot of his car, thinking he should take him to hospital.
Instead, he drove around in a panic before dumping him, not knowing if he was still alive.
Forensic tests showed that the temperature in the boot could reach 47 degrees Celsius in the afternoon sun.
Dhillon's wife Simarjeet Kaur initially denied knowledge of his involvement to protect him.
But she later told police she saw him holding the unconscious toddler near the front door.
She admitted getting his car keys and watching Dhillon take the toddler away in the car.
"We talked about what to do. He said he would take him to the doctor."
She said to him they should tell the baby's mother but he refused because they would be blamed.
After dumping the boy, Dhillon returned home at about 3.30pm, and joined his housemates in searching for Gurshan, who by then was reported missing by his parents.
Dhillon told police he believed he would get into trouble if he sought help, hurting his chances of gaining permanent residency.
"If I call the ambulance then ... I will be in the court and I have to go to the police and that's why I was so much afraid."
He did not give Gurshan first aid, although he was qualified to do so.
"I am a very bad human. It was the day which took me too far from my dreams," he told police.
Dhillon asked friends to lie to police about his whereabouts, asking one to rub mud on the car seats and especially the boot because "I don't want to the dogs to smell it".
Before Gurshan's death, his parents were planning to return within weeks to India where they now live.
Dhillon, who came to Australia with his wife in 2008 on a bridging visa, was charged three days after Gurshan's body was found.
Court documents reveal the Department of Immigration are investigating him for offences relating to his previous entry into Australia on a passport with a different name.
He is in custody awaiting a Victorian Supreme Court directions hearing on September 21.
