X-ray expert rules out rickets in Matthew Riley Baxter’s death

A coronial inquest examining a six-week-old boy’s death has heard evidence that X-rays showed his ribs were fractured and refractured, and he did not suffer from the disease rickets.

Nicholas Baxter leaves the Townsville Court House.

A coronial inquest examining a six-week-old boy’s death has heard evidence that X-rays showed his ribs were fractured and refractured, and he did not suffer from the disease rickets.

Giving evidence before Coroner Stephanie Williams in Brisbane on Monday, specialist pediatric radiologist Tim Cain said that he had reviewed medical imaging taken of Matthew Riley Baxter’s body after his life support was switched off on November 6, 2011.

“There is no way that those rib fractures on the left, those two that we have been talking about, are related to rickets. That is a direct trauma,” he told counsel assisting Jeffrey Hunter.

Dr Cain, who has been a senior staff specialist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne since 2005, said that the lines on the images implied that the child’s three bottom ribs “have been fractured and refractured, so more than one episode of trauma”.

Baby Matthew Riley Baxter. Picture: Roanne Johnson

Baby Matthew was alleged to be in the sole care of his father Nicholas at the time before he was rushed to Townsville Hospital on November 3, 2011.

Mr Baxter was jailed for his son’s manslaughter in 2017 but he was given a retrial after a successful appeal, then he was acquitted in 2021.

He has always denied the allegations and was not in the Coroner’s Court on Monday for the inquest.

Mr Hunter asked Dr Cain if there would be signs of rickets or bone mineralisation elsewhere on X-ray images if baby Matthew was suffering from the condition.

“Definitely. So . (another survey) shows arms and part of the legs and the ends of those bones are quite normal looking, they have got normal mineralisation,” Dr Cain said.

Matthew’s parents, Nicholas and Tenae Baxter outside court in Townsville.

“If it was birth trauma you would expect a clavicle fracture commonly … or different types of rib fractures that occurred when the patient has been born but not the two adjacent ribs like that,” he said.

The inquest has previously been told that baby Matthew had a traumatic birth.

“If it was rickets or underlying bone dysplasia you would expect other bones to be abnormal,” Dr Cain said, but this was not apparent.

The inquest continues and is due to run until March 27.

Originally published as X-ray expert rules out rickets in Matthew Riley Baxter’s death