Nambucca baby death case jury delivers not guilty verdict

A jury has handed down its verdict in the manslaughter trial of a Coffs Coast father who was accused of shaking his baby daughter and causing shocking injuries that led to her death in 2019.

The man, who cannot be identified, was arrested in 2020.

A Coffs Coast man standing trial for the manslaughter of his baby daughter has been found not guilty.

As soon as the verdict was handed down the accused left the dock and sat with his father who had been supporting him throughout the trial.

The jury retired on Wednesday morning, July 20, and delivered its verdict at approximately 2pm the same day.

The man had pleaded not guilty to manslaughter after his baby died in 2019 with horrific injuries, including bleeding in her eyes and broken ribs.

The man, who cannot be identified, was arrested and charged at a Nambucca Heads home in November 2020 more than a year after the baby girl’s death on October 27, 2019.

He was facing a trial for manslaughter at Coffs Harbour Supreme Court before acting Judge Jon Williams.

The trial went for just over three weeks.

Among the exhibits presented to the court was a tape recording in which the baby’s grandmother said “somebody had to speak for the poor little baby”.

Several medical experts told the court the fatal injuries were caused due to repeated and violent shaking but the jury was being asked to determine whether or not it was the father, who was 34 at the time of his arrest, who shook the baby on the night of October 27.

The baby was flown to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead for treatment, but died the next day, and the jury heard of the horrific injuries the baby suffered.

The court heard evidence that an autopsy also revealed evidence of older injuries including broken ribs, bleeding in both eyes and evidence of old blood in the nerves of the spine.

The jury also heard evidence of messages in which the man pressured the baby’s mother for sex and money to buy a skateboard, but was repeatedly rebuffed in the days before the baby’s death.

Crown Prosecutor Susan Oliver gave her final submissions on Monday, recapping evidence given by several experts, first responders and the mother of the baby girl.

Good husband and carer

Ms Oliver told the court the baby’s mother had suffered significant challenges in her life and urged the jury to “not judge her too harshly” saying that “she hasn’t got the capacity to show emotions like we do”.

The mother was born deaf and has been diagnosed with a global developmental delay and when she turned 18 her mother took on the role of her paid carer.

Ms Oliver said people can be “quick to judge, particularly mothers, who don’t show emotions we expect, particularly in situations of grief”.

She said the accused had no convictions of violence and was a good husband and carer but that: “good people can snap in the right set of circumstances”.

She outlined a period of three weeks in the lead up to the incident in which he could have snapped when the mother became ill and he was required to take on full-time care of the child.

At the time, his mother-in-law – whom the couple relied on heavily – was also away.

A phone call between the maternal grandmother and her daughter was played for the jury in which the grandmother asked her daughter “did you lose your temper?” to which she replied “no”.

Ms Oliver pointed out that neither of them was aware it was being recorded and it indicated the grandmother bore no grudge against the accused but just wanted the investigation to determine what happened.

“Somebody has got to speak out for the poor little baby,” the grandmother was heard to say during the phone call.

Ms Oliver also spoke of a series of texts in which the accused asked again and again for sex but she “knocked him back” and then he asked about buying a skateboard but she said they needed to save.

“So those set of circumstances (during which a good person might snap) might include being denied sex, denied money and being overworked,” Ms Oliver said.

Coffs Harbour courthouse.

‘Not a witness of truth’

Defence lawyer Tania Evers told the jury there was “no dispute she (the baby) died of being shaken hard” and that nobody else minded her that night and they needed to be sure the mother was “honest, reliable, credible and consistent”.

But Ms Evers told the jury the mother was “not a witness of truth and that she changes her story all the time”.

She said the texts referred to by the Crown did not display anger and were accompanied with lighthearted emojis.

“The texts are typical of (the accused) – non confrontational.”

Ms Evers emphasised the accused was a loving, caring husband and the mother was “the love of his life” and that he was in great distress as his daughter lay dying in the hospital and was “vomiting and upset”.

She told jurors that it was in that context that he was questioned about his movements in the lead up to the incident - “he was a man suffering”.