Caboolture mum violently shook baby causing brain bleed
A Caboolture mother has been found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to her seven-month-old daughter by violently shaking her, causing brain bleeding that nearly killed the child.
Shocking details of how a Caboolture toddler’s brain bled after her veins were torn when her mother violently shook her, or otherwise “rapidly accelerated” her head, have been heard in court.
On Tuesday the young mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of causing her seven-month-old baby daughter grievous bodily harm while she was alone in her care at Caboolture on July 24, 2015.
After a four-week judge-only trial, District Court Judge Philip McCarthy KC found the mum guilty and said that “this darling little girl would have died but for the exceptional medical intervention of both the Caboolture and Lady Cilento Hospitals”.
The mother of two, who told the court she was loving and caring and said she did not harm her infant daughter, was instead found to have applied a “deliberate accelerative/decelerative force” to the child’s head.
This caused subdural haemorrhage to her brain and retinal haemorrhaging to her eyes.
The rapid backwards and forwards motion of the head caused the jelly inside of the eye to continue moving and tear the blood vessels at the surface of the retina, Judge McCarthy found after considering lengthy and complex medical evidence.
“The evidence conclusively supported that a deliberate accelerative/decelerative force was applied by her mother, the defendant,” Mr McCarthy ruled.
The mum took the child to Caboolture Hospital just after 4:10pm on July 24, 2015.
She was pale, breathing fast and shallow and not responding to any stimulus.
Her right pupil was not reacting to light, and she her right thigh was swollen and deformed.
Scans were done showing the baby had skull fractures and a subdural haemorrhage.
She was transferred to the Lady Cilento Hospital where a consultant pediatric neurosurgeon operated on her.
“Any suggested hypothesis that an unknown member of the public may have assaulted her in her pram, whilst her mother, the defendant inspected the potential rental accommodation ..., is remote and fanciful,” Judge McCarthy stated.
“Any suggested hypotheses that either of the ambulance officers or the medical staff at the hospitals contributed or caused the injury to the baby, is again remote and fanciful,” he stated.
Judge McCarthy concluded that the baby had no pre-existing abnormality, disease or disorder that may have caused or contributed to her subdural haemorrhage.
He also excluded the mum’s partner, or the child’s two-year-old sister could have inflicted the injury, or that the baby hurt herself.
The mother has been remanded in custody pending sentence on December 19.
