NSW cop admits coaching her mum to lie during police investigation into her son’s violent shaking

A medical report referenced in agreed facts tendered to the court reveals the boy suffered extensive injuries on the brain, retina and spine after being shaken with “potentially lethal” force.

The woman was a serving NSW police officer when she committed the crime, the court was told. Picture: Thomas Lisson

A serving cop coached her own mother on how to lie to police in the weeks after her baby was shaken so violently he could have died, a court has heard.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with perverting the course of justice after she was secretly recorded telling the boy’s grandmother what to say and how to act ahead of an interview with detectives about her grandson’s injuries.

Details of the case can be revealed for the first time after the woman recently pleaded guilty in court, despite maintaining her innocence for more than three years.

Her husband and the child’s father was also charged alongside his wife but has pleaded not guilty and will take the same charge to trial next year.

Neither parent has been charged with assaulting the boy.

Detectives launched an investigation after receiving an alert from the hospital about the boy’s injuries. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Court documents reveal the grandmother was initially charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm over the boy’s injuries, but the charge was subsequently dropped and the matter remains unsolved.

Agreed facts tendered to court in the wake of the mother’s plea to perverting the course of justice said the baby had been ill for several days with a virus before his parents went to work one day in July 2021 leaving him in the care of his maternal grandmother.

They said when they got home he was like a “rag doll” and a “dead weight” in their arms.

He was admitted to hospital overnight but discharged the next day, however remained ill, and was readmitted on July 8, then again on July 9.

A series of CT scans, MRIs and X-rays revealed the boy had significant injuries on his brain, behind the eyes and along his spine, which doctors said had been caused by a “recent traumatic event involving forceful repetitive acceleration/deceleration (ie shaking) and head trauma”.

“The injuries were severe in nature and the forces required to cause them were potentially lethal,” the medical report said.

The case was referred to police who searched the couple’s home three days later.

Neither parent could account for the boy’s injuries and both denied ever having hurt him.

The grandmother was also interviewed and told police the child had fallen over in the bath.

Meanwhile, detectives began secretly monitoring mobile phones belonging to both parents.

Picture: Getty Images/iStock

The phone taps revealed the woman repeatedly called her mother to coach her on what to say during follow-up interviews with police and workers from Family and Community Services, particularly in the wake of the medical report saying the child’s injuries were the result of being shaken.

“Make it sound horrible,” the mother said, referring to the veracity of the shaking.

“And just admit you were in the wrong at the time when it all happened. And frantic et cetera … you panicked.

“Even if you use your hands a lot in the interview, that will come across really well …. and if you want to cry, just let it all out.

“Oh yeah, yes I’m good at that … I can play it up … you name it I can do it … yeah, actress I am,” the grandmother replied.

“And then obviously don’t mention we’ve had conversations,” the mother said.

The court heard the grandmother admitted to police she’d shaken the boy but claimed she couldn’t remember for how long or how much force she’d used.

When later confronted by detectives, the mother initially denied speaking to the grandmother at all about the shaking – until officers played her recordings of their phone conversations.

“Um, it obviously looks like I’ve put words in her mouth and I can appreciate that,” she said, but denied she’d been trying to “coach” her mother.

The agreed facts did not provide any update on the boy’s current health in relation to the injuries.

The woman remains on bail and will face sentencing in the NSW District Court later this year.