A BABY was subjected to a catalogue of abuse over a six-week period in the home of his young parents who could not cope with him, the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee heard yesterday.
The resultant injuries, which included a fractured skull, three fractured ribs, black eyes, “carpet burns to his nose” and bruising to ankles and wrist, came to light when a paediatrician at Kerry General Hospital became very concerned after the four month old was admitted on April 13th, 2009.
That day the baby had a nosebleed that would not stop. Judge Carroll Moran said this was not just a domestic incident, but a serious crime, and the accused in the case, the baby’s father, would have to live with the conviction for the rest of his life as a big stain on his reputation.
“It’s not just the conviction. It’s also a case in which the details of the offence were very disturbing,” he said.
Judge Moran ordered that the name of the accused not be published because this would lead to the identification of the child.
After detailing the child’s injuries, the judge said: “It shows a pattern of cruelty which puts this case into a very serious category. It’s not just a case of neglect.”
The accused faced three years in prison, but this was adjourned for a year on condition he continues to receive therapy and abstains from illicit drugs.
A paediatrician had found the injuries were “non-accidental”.
A HSE social worker had called Killarney gardaí, who immediately went to the hospital to view the injuries, and began an inquiry.
Some of the injuries could have been fatal, the court heard.
The baby’s father, in his mid-20s, had pleaded guilty to wilfully ill-treating a child in his care on a date between February 2nd and April 13th, 2009, under the Children Act 2001.
Sgt Miriam Mulhall Nolan of Killarney outlined to prosecutor Tom Rice how the child had lived with his mother and her parents, where he had been very well cared for, until mid-February of last year.
At that stage the accused, the child’s mother (then aged 18) and the baby set up house together as a family unit.
When questioned, the accused initially “blamed the mother”, but admitted some time later to a psychologist and then to gardaí that he was responsible for the injuries, Sgt Mulhall Nolan said.
He told gardaí he had a problem with drink and drugs. The baby’s crying irritated him “especially if he had drink and drugs taken”, Sgt Mulhall Nolan said. In the two-month period he lived with the victim he said the crying would irritate him and he would seek to frighten and shake the baby. “He just wasn’t coping.” He admitted that on one occasion he let the baby fall, the sergeant outlined.
On April 13th, 2009 the baby started to cry and his mother could not cope, and gave him to the father. She left the room. He started shaking him and hit his nose off the cot, and then could not stop the bleeding. The child was taken to South Doc, the GP agency, which immediately sent him to Kerry General Hospital.
The father also admitted shaking the baby on Mother’s Day when the mother was in the shower, the sergeant said.
In a victim impact statement on behalf of the baby, social worker Gaye Browne detailed the fractures and other injuries, including carpet-type burns to the baby’s nose which had become infected.
“According to the medical experts, some of these injuries could have been fatal,” the social worker said in the statement, read by Sgt Mulhall Nolan.
The baby is now a happy toddler and showed no obvious signs of the trauma apart from some nightmares, Sgt Mulhall Nolan said.
Both sets of grandparents and the parents’ siblings were sharing his care. They were devastated by the events. The court heard how “credible excuses” had been offered by both parents to their wider families when they became concerned at bruises.
The child “will have some serious questions for his parents later on in life”, the social worker said. The mother was entering therapy to understand her behaviour. “It will take a great effort on her behalf to see if she can care for her son, unsupervised, in the future,” Ms Browne said.
Defence counsel Brian McInerney outlined how the accused was responding well to counselling. He acknowledged what he had done was a crime and wholly unacceptable. He sees his child daily, under supervision.