Cairns courts: Man pleads not guilty to grievous bodily harm of baby boy

A baby boy suffered catastrophic and sustained bleeding and damage to his brain, a Cairns court has heard, as his father pleads not guilty to grievous bodily harm. Warning: Distressing content

A forensic pediatrician told a court the injuries suffered by a four-month-old boy were catastrophic, severe and entirely consistent with the child having been violently shaken.

The boy’s father has pleaded not guilty to grievous bodily harm that allegedly occurred during a day of September 2022.

Cairns District Court has heard women in the home describe the child as looking well, happy and settled before they left to take a TV to Cash Converters.

When they returned and were eating lunch, the child’s mother asked another young child to check on the baby asleep on the bed.

The baby was flown to Brisbane Children's Hospital. Picture: File

The girl said the baby was shaking all over and making a snoring noise, the court heard.

“I thought he was getting a fright in his sleep,” she said in an interview.

The mother became concerned she could not wake the infant, who she said was ‘twitching’ and there was mucus on the bed, and she called triple-0.

The boy went via Townsville to lifesaving neurosurgery in Brisbane but now has significant and permanent cognitive and physical damage.

Questioned by senior crown prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton, Dr Deanna True said the injury could not have happened before the women left the house, because the symptoms would have been immediate.

She said the snoring sound may have been because the child was struggling to breathe as his brain shut down.

“He had a catastrophic head injury, severe, he would have had symptoms immediately, he did not have a head injury at that time,” Dr True said.

The trial started in Cairns on Monday. Picture: File

She said the injuries included an odema at the back of the baby’s neck, severe bilateral retinal haemorrhaging, a large left side subdural haematoma that was actively bleeding as he was wheeled into the operating theatre, the area between the left and the right side of the brain bleeding, and the area between the upper and lower part of the brain bleeding.

But there was no evidence of external injuries consistent with having been dropped or fallen and no bone fractures or bruising.

Dr True said it was typical of trauma caused by what doctors called acceleration, de-acceleration and angular rotation of the head.

“Forces set up when there is violent shaking, that requires sustained force and would be seen by a witness as life-threatening and dangerous to the infant,” she said.

Dr True said if the baby had been dropped there would be an impact injury and there wasn’t.

“A number of people recognised he was not his usual self, was not easily able to be woken, and my understanding he never recovered from that point, he sustained a severe head injury with damage to the brain.

“This infant was having seizures when he arrived at the hospital.”

The court heard family found the baby boy unresponsive and immediately called triple-0. Picture: Brendan Radke / File

Police Child Protection and Investigation unit detective senior constable Damon Smalley gave evidence and the footage from his body worn camera during a walk through interview with the father a day later which was played to the court.

The father said he got up about 12.30pm and put the baby on his side with a bottle, before moving him to a bed, and that he was busy cleaning and sweeping when the women went out.

He was given a dummy baby to demonstrate to police how the baby was laying and how he was held and what position the baby was in.

The man, who had another child in his care, was unable to tell detectives any particular times when things occurred but said his partner was worried when she returned that the baby was sleeping.

“I thought he was just tired, I don’t know why he’s sleeping that long,” he said in the video.

“Yeah, that’s the whole story.”

The trial before Judge Tracy Fantin is continuing.

Originally published as Cairns courts: Man pleads not guilty to grievous bodily harm of baby boy