Dad loses appeal in case of shaken newborn baby

A Sunshine Coast man who inflicted catastrophic permanent brain damage on his seven-week-old son has lost a bid to secure an earlier release from prison.

A Sunshine Coast man who inflicted catastrophic permanent brain damage on his seven-week-old son has lost a bid to secure an earlier release from prison.

The man is serving a seven-year jail term for a series of attacks on his defenceless son who suffered grievous bodily harm when his father violently shook him.

The child was left with cerebral palsy, and severe physical disabilities which mean he is unable to walk, must be fed through a tube, suffers seizures, has visual impairments and has problems swallowing.

The Queensland father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his child victim, applied for leave to appeal against the sentence of imprisonment he received in August 2021, arguing it was manifestly excessive.

The man argued his parole eligibility should have been set after he had served one third of the seven-year term.

But the Court of Appeal has found the sentence that will see him become eligible parole after he has served half of the seven-year term was appropriate.

The court, comprised of Justice Jean Dalton, Justice Robert Gotterson and Justice James Henry dismissed the man’s application for leave to appeal against sentence.

The 30-year-old man pleaded guilty in 2021 to offences of grievous bodily harm and two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm relating to violence against his son inflicted in 2019.

The court heard when the child was about four weeks old, all of his left ribs were fractured and his femur was broken.

Three weeks later the boy was rushed to hospital after another incident.

“This time the applicant had shaken the baby, causing a violent whiplash motion of the baby’s head and neck,” the appeal judges wrote.

“This caused severe bleeding and swelling across almost all of the baby’s brain, an injury at the base of the brain above the spinal cord, and numerous retinal haemorrhages.”

The court took into account a number of issues including the “especially vulnerable” position of the child, that the man showed limited insight and remorse for his actions and that he had hurt the baby in anger more than once.

“However, by far the most influential factual feature of the case in the determination of a just sentence was the catastrophic, life altering consequence of the grievous bodily harm offence,” the judges wrote.

“The defendant’s ill-tempered violence towards his baby has forever deprived the child of any semblance of the life he should have enjoyed.”

The man will be eligible for parole from late 2024.

Originally published as Dad loses appeal in case of shaken newborn baby