Braiden Shane Spinks pleads not guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm, grievous bodily harm of three-month-old boy

The grandmother of a baby that was allegedly violently shaken by Braiden Shane Spinks has given evidence at his trial, revealing the aftermath of the alleged incident as ‘traumatic’ and remembering the three-month-old as ‘content and chatty’. DETAILS.

Braiden Shane Spinks outside Warwick District Court. August 19, 2024.

“He’s gasping for air. He’s not breathing,” a male voice on the triple-0 call says. “He keeps gasping.”

Police will allege this is the voice of Braiden Shane Spinks.

The man is accused of shaking a three month old baby in 2020, resulting in “serious injury”.

The Crown alleges Mr Spinks caused bleeding in the child’s brain and brain tissue.

Mr Spinks is charged with one charge each of assault occasioning bodily harm and grievous bodily harm and pleaded not guilty in Warwick District Court on August 19 at the first day of his trial before a jury and Judge Suzanne Sheridan.

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

The Crown called the grandmother of a baby allegedly shaken in 2020 to give evidence, as the trial against the man accused of the assault continues into its third day.

On Wednesday, the grandmother of the complainant – a three month old child – gave evidence, telling the court she met the baby the day he was born in early 2020 and described the baby as a “great, interactive baby who was very chatty and content”.

“I would see (the baby) every three or so days,” the woman told the court.

The Crown asked the grandmother to recall June 8, 2020, the date the Crown alleges Mr Spinks shook the child causing “serious injury” in a ten minute window while the mother of the infant was out of the house.

On June 8, the grandmother told the court she was out shopping in Stanthorpe, and had bumped into the mother of the child.

“All of a sudden, two ambulances came screaming past and I immediately felt something was wrong,” she said.

The woman said although she couldn’t identify the exact time it was, she knew it was in the morning of June 8.

After a quick phone call, she had found out the baby “was unconscious”.

Racing to the scene, the grandmother said she saw ambulances out the front of the Stanthorpe property.

“(Mr Spinks) was there, he was shaken and very white, mumbling, it must have been an experience to see that,” she told the court.

“He said he was changing the baby and the baby had vomited, so he rolled it onto his side and realised something was wrong and rang an ambulance.”

The grandmother told the court she observed “no mess” at the house, and when the mother of the child and the baby went to hospital, she stayed in the aftermath.

During cross-examination by defence barrister Jessica Goldie, the grandmother said “all of a sudden it was a crime scene, it was very traumatic”.

“On July 1, 2020, (the mother) came to Stanthorpe for (a child’s) birthday … and over the space of one and a half hours, you asked her three times whether or not she had hurt him, and then again later that day you asked if she had shaken the baby,” Ms Goldie asked.

“On the third time you asked if she had hurt the baby, and she told you ‘I should just go down to the police station and hand myself in so all of this will go away’,” Ms Goldie said.

“Yes, she did say that,” the grandmother replied.

The trial continues under Judge Suzanne Sheridan, with several more family members expected to call evidence.

EARLIER:

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

The first witness called by the Crown, the mother of the child, was subject to cross-examination by Mr Spinks’ defence barrister, Jessica Goldie.

Mr Spinks is accused of shaking her three-month-old child, resulting in “serious injury” in 2020.

The man has pleaded not guilty to two charges of assault occasioning bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.

The mother told the court during cross-examination she took great care when dealing with the child, saying: “I questioned everything, I didn’t want to even burp him too hard”.

Braiden Shane Spinks outside Warwick District Court on August 20, 2024.

The woman said Mr Spinks would usually visit her home at Stanthorpe “weekly”.

“You would often go outside to smoke cigarettes and you would leave the children alone inside the house,” Ms Goldie said.

“Yes, I would not smoke in the house, so of course they would stay inside,” the mother replied.

The woman claimed that Mr Spinks “wouldn’t change a nappy or feed the baby” and probably “held the baby only once”.

“I suggest you told police he had ‘changed (the baby) heaps of times’, as well as prepared bottles of milk,” Ms Goldie said.

“I highly doubt that,” the woman said.

“Why did you leave (the baby) alone with (Mr Spinks) while you got your nails done,” the defence asked.

“I left specific instructions and said to call me if anything was wrong,” the woman replied.

The court was told on Monday Mr Spinks had only been left alone with the child on a few occasions, one being the alleged offending date.

“I suggest you were frustrated with him (the baby) as you couldn’t sleep,” Ms Goldie said.

“Frustrated maybe, but that doesn’t mean I would purposely injure my child,” the woman answered.

On a date before June 8, 2020, the woman and the child were driving back from the Gold Coast, where Mr Spinks lived, to Stanthorpe.

“(The baby) was screaming the whole way home from the Gold Coast, you say he was just in the car for too long. You told Braiden (Spinks) you were ready to throw him out the window,” Ms Goldie put to the witness.

“You gave him a Panadol and a dummy and said ‘I hope that settles the little c--t’.”

The woman denied this notion put to her by the defence.

The woman maintained throughout Tuesday that some details were hazy as “it was more than four years ago” and “a lot of it has been blocked out as it is traumatising”.

The trial will continue on Wednesday under Judge Suzanne Sheridan.

Braiden Shane Spinks outside Warwick District Court.

Monday, August 19, 2024

Following the triple-0 call on June 8, 2020, at Stanthorpe, paramedics rushed inside the Granite Belt address to find the three-month-old unresponsive, Crown prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke said in her opening address to the jury.

“He had serious injuries and was rushed to hospital. He had bleeding in the brain, and within the brain tissue, as well as retinal haemorrhages, with scans later revealing blood in the subdural area of the brain,” Ms O’Rourke alleged.

The Crown alleges the child was “vigorously shaken” and “if he did not have medical treatment, he would have died”.

The jury was told Mr Spinks began dating the mother of the child in April 2020, mere weeks before the triple-0 call is alleged to have occurred.

The mother of the child had left the house for 10 minutes before a panicked Mr Spinks rang her to “come home”, Ms O’Rourke told the jury.

The Crown alleges Mr Spinks had “shaken the child when left alone on two occasions” – May 28, 2020 and June 8, 2020.

The mother of the child was called by the prosecution on Monday, telling the court she had met the defendant, Mr Spinks, via an online dating app in April of 2020.

“He would not feed or change the baby,” the woman told the court.

“He would say the baby’s crying would hurt his head where he had a brain tumour removed, quite often he would say it.”

The Crown alleges the mother of the child began noticing something was wrong after the first time the child was left solely in the company of Mr Spinks.

The woman, appearing as the Crown’s first witness on Monday, told the court she had come back from a nail appointment, and noticed the baby “was sleeping a lot”.

“He wouldn’t stir, I didn’t understand why he wasn’t himself and why he wasn’t waking up. Usually he would be upset being changed, but this time he didn’t fuss at all,” the mother said.

“He was very floppy and relaxed, like a newborn.”

The Crown alleges the second offence of grievous bodily harm related to an incident on June 8, 2020.

The woman testified Mr Spinks told her: “You need to get home now”.

The court was told Mr Spinks told the mother her child had began “vomiting while being changed and started to go blue”.

“(He said) he needed a lawyer and he told me I should confess,” the woman told the jury.

“He said if he goes down for all of this he will come for us all. This was only a couple of days after, I hadn’t even processed everything.”

The Crown played an audio recording of Mr Spinks and the woman on the phone, in which Mr Spinks is alleged to be heard saying: “I wouldn’t survive in there. I will die, we both know that” – referring to prison.

The Crown alleges Mr Spinks tried to get the mother of the child to take the fall, confessing to the crime.

“He wanted me to say I shook him for six seconds in the lounge room. Everything got so specific,” the mother said on Monday.

The Crown is expected to call a large number of witnesses, including several family members, medical experts as well as doctors, police and first responders on the scene.

The trial will continue under Judge Suzanne Sheridan on Tuesday.

Originally published as Braiden Shane Spinks pleads not guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm, grievous bodily harm of three-month-old boy