Shane Purssell Akehurst pleads guilty to torture and manslaughter of son Corby
A Queensland father who tortured and killed his baby boy — with 81 injuries detected to his tiny body — will be sentenced for the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Crime & Justice
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THE cold-hearted father of a 21-month-old baby who had 81 injuries to his tiny body at the time of his death has pleaded guilty to torturing and killing his son.
Shane Purssell Akehurst, 37, today confessed in the Brisbane Supreme Court to repeatedly throwing baby Corby on to a timber bed, where he hit the wall behind, at the family home at Kin Kin near Gympie in March 2015.
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Akehurst was originally charged with murder, torture, five counts of assault and one of grievous bodily harm in relation to the death of his son, who was killed shortly before his second birthday.
But today he pleaded guilty to the downgraded charge of manslaughter and one count of torture.
The court was told Akehurst tortured his son on a number of occasions between late 2014 and March 25, 2015.
After his arrest, Akehurst told police he had forcefully thrown the boy in anger several times against the bed because he wouldn’t stop crying on March 25.
He said the child hit a timber wall above the bed and started convulsing, the court was told.
Akehurst said he used “everything he had” to throw the child into the wall.
However when the 37-year-old phoned triple-0 after the child became unconscious, he lied about what had happened.
The court heard Akehurst told ambulance officers he had put the child down for an afternoon nap before he heard a noise. When he went into the room the child suddenly went stiff, as if having a seizure.
He said he tried to revive baby Corby by splashing water on his face before commencing CPR.
The baby died from serious head injuries two days later, after being deemed brain-dead.
When arrested, Akehurst tried to cover up months of torturing Corby, saying the baby had fallen off a bed, been pushed over by the family dog at the beach and had fallen from a swing.
He also initially lied about how the baby came to need medical attention after hitting the wall on March 25.
After police told the man of his son’s critical condition, the next day came clean about his prolonged abuse of Corby.
“He told police he had been home alone, child was on the lounge and he told (Corby) he had to go to sleep,” Crown prosecutor Mark Green said.
“He got angry with the child’s behaviour and was continuously picking the child up, taking him back to his room and throwing him back on to the bed.”
Mr Green said Akehurst told police he threw Corby into the wall above the bed with “probably with everything I had”.
“He hit his head on the timber wall behind and he started convulsing,” he said.
The father told detectives he didn’t care if he caused harm to the child and had intended to hurt him, the court was told.
“The defendant told police he knew what he was doing and there was a potential that something was going to go wrong,” Mr Green said.
Akehurst later revealed to police he had systemically tortured Corby to punish his wife.
He said he would drop the child on his cot from hip height.
“He wouldn’t go out of his way to avoid the child if he was in his way,” Mr Green said.
“He felt a lot of resentment for the child, that his wife had more time for the child... He felt if he punished his child, he would be punishing his wife.”
The court heard baby Corby had 81 injuries to his tiny body at the time of his death, including scratches and bruising to his genitals, an infected nail bed, a swollen ear, broken ribs and ribs that had previously been broken and had healed.
The court heard Akehurst said he had intentionally inflicted pain on the child, including punching him in the eyes, chin and nose when he wouldn’t settle at night.
“On Monday 23 March at midnight, went to see the child because he was not sleeping,” Mr Green said.
“He punched the child twice in the face... after that the child just settled and went back to bed.”
One day later, the child woke in the night and was calling out to his mother and Akehurst entered the room.
He said he “sat the child down and he was looking at him and he punched him twice in the face”.
The court also heard the man had squeezed the child in the chest “once a week, for four weeks, during the course of February” and once during December.
The court heard Akehurst got angry at the child, picked him up and gave him a “really good squeeze” and heard “a couple of pops” to the child’s ribs.
Akehurst told the police he imagined the squeezing would be excruciating and he wanted the child to experience it.
“This child’s death was the inevitable consequence of the defendant’s persistent torturous conduct,” Mr Green said.
The mother of the child did not provide a victim impact statement to the court but said through a letter to Mr Green: “All I want is justice for Corby, but no matter what sentence is given it wont be enough, because I am living without my baby boy.”
Under the previous charge of murder, Akehurst would have faced a mandatory sentence of life behind bars.
However he will likely face a significantly lower penalty under the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The Queensland Government last year announced it would move to crack down on lenient sentences being handed to child killers, after a year-long review by the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council found the state’s penalties did not adequately reflect the “undue and significant” vulnerabilities of child victims.
Defence barrister Robert East said Akehurst had “ticked all the boxes” and “led a blameless life” before being charged over his son’s death.
He said his client had never bonded with the child and was incompetent as a carer of the baby because he could not settle him at night.
Justice Martin Burns said that could not possibly explain what he did to the baby.
The court heard Akehurst suffered a brain tumour and was currently undergoing chemotherapy.
Akehurst will be sentenced next week.
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