Charlotte Keen’s mum partied while baby suffered

IT HAS been 12 years since baby Charlotte Keen was found in her cot with a “floppy” neck as details about her tragic death are revealed in court.

Charlotte Rose Keen - deceased. Charlotte suffered "substantial " injuries at a Wodonga home on December 12, 2004 and died December 17th as result of the injuries in the Royal Children's Hospital.

CHARLOTTE Keen was just three days away from celebrating her first birthday.

She deserved to have a long and promising future ahead of her, but the innocent 11-month-old was instead brutally and fatally assaulted in Wodonga and 12 years later, the case is still before the court.

Brett Noel Penrose is pleading not guilty to the manslaughter of Charlotte, who died from head injuries after she was battered and allegedly struck or shaken.

The baby lived with her mother Renee Jones and Penrose, her mother’s partner, and the Victorian Supreme Court heard this week that Charlotte was allegedly living amid drug use and obscene language.

Charlotte was dazed and unresponsive in her cot on the morning of December 12, 2004 and five days later she died in hospital from head injury complications.

The night before Charlotte was found in her cot, Ms Jones was told she needed to take a break and her ex-partner and Charlotte’s father, Graeme Keen, force-fed the mother an ecstasy pill, the court heard.

As Ms Jones went out and spent the night with friends, Charlotte was left in a world of suffering.

Brett Noel Penrose pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Charlotte Keen.

Prosecutor Susan Borg told the court Ms Jones rang Penrose in the evening but he told her not to come home because he was writing her a letter.

The court heard when Ms Jones returned in the morning, her daughter had a “floppy” head

and she yelled at Penrose to call triple-0.

While Ms Jones was out with her friends, Charlotte was alone in her cot, vomiting and stained with her own blood.

The court heard the mother knew something serious was going on.

“Normally she’s standing up but she wasn’t standing up,” the mother told the court.

“So I went to pick her up and she was floppy in the neck, and I put her back down.

“I turned her over and there was obviously something seriously wrong with her.”

Despite Penrose telling Ms Jones the baby vomited throughout the night, the court heard he lied to ambulance officers when they asked how she was the night before.

He said “yeah, no drama” and allegedly covered up the fact the baby was sick.

Charlotte was covered in more than 20 bruises and the court heard she had a “huge” one on her head. Penrose told ambulance officers he did not know how it got there.

Ms Borg told the court an autopsy confirmed the baby’s head injury was consistent with trauma from shaking or blunt impact.

Charlotte Keen’s mother Renee Jones visiting her daughter’s grave 10 years ago.

Ms Jones testified at her former partner’s trial this week and was cross-examined by defence counsel John Kelly, who asked her questions about the way she treated her daughter.

He asked her whether or not it was true that she told a friend she sometimes wished she didn’t have Charlotte because Penrose did not want more kids, but she denied the claim.

Mr Kelly also asked Ms Jones if she said to her daughter “you f---ing c---, go to sleep” but the mother denied it again and said she swore in front of her daughter, but it was never directed at her baby or anybody else.

While testifying, Ms Jones did not agree with claims she told Charlotte’s father at the hospital she was afraid of getting “done” for manslaughter.

“I don’t know what I said, so I’m not going to agree to that,” Ms Jones told Mr Kelly in court.

She said she could have said it as it was a stressful time.

The trial is continuing.