Drunk Tennant Creek man fractured baby’s skull with bottle at her first birthday party

An NT man serving a suspended sentence for breaking his partner’s jaw fractured an infant’s skull after hitting her with a bottle.

A Tennant Creek baby remains in hospital after an attack 12 days ago.

A convicted domestic violence perpetrator – who was given a wholly suspended sentence for reasons including that his partner was pregnant – has allegedly fractured a baby’s skull by drunkenly hitting the child with a glass bottle during her first birthday party.

The baby, from the outback town of Tennant Creek, remains in an Adelaide hospital after ­undergoing surgery following the attack 12 days ago.

The girl was flown from the predominantly Indigenous community, 500km north of Alice Springs, to Adelaide late on May 28 after the man allegedly threw a bottle which hit her head.

Emergency services were notified of the incident just before 9pm that Sunday.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service was called to airlift the infant, who was in a critical condition, to the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital for surgery.

The baby was reportedly ­accompanied on the flight to Adelaide by her grandmother as her parents were unfit to fly due to ­intoxication.

On Thursday NT Police confirmed the child remained in hospital in Adelaide in a stable condition and was receiving ongoing medical treatment.

The day after the attack, police charged the man with aggravated assault, unlawfully causing serious harm and recklessly ­endangering serious harm.

Officers allege the 26-year-old was intoxicated when he assaulted the child using a “blunt weapon” at the remote community.

During a brief mention at Alice Springs Local Court last week, ­ the man was also accused of breaching his suspended sentence and remanded in custody until his next court appearance on July 20.

Tennant Creek Police Station. Picture: AAP

Court documents obtained by The Australian reveal that at the time of the infant’s assault, the man had been serving a suspended sentence for breaking his partner’s jaw during a drunken attack in May 2021 after a night of drinking rum and Jim Beam.

In February 2022 the man’s sentence of two years and three months was wholly suspended after he plead guilty to unlawfully causing serious harm when he punched the mother of his ­children in the face with a closed fist in a “backhand swing” while they lay in bed.

During sentencing, judge ­Stephen Southwood said that while the maximum penalty for the ­offence was 14 years of ­imprisonment, he had decided to wholly suspend the man’s sentence based on his guilty plea, ­relative youth and participation in counselling among other considerations.

“It is apparent that the offender is genuinely remorseful and this is the first violent offence he has ever committed,” Justice Southwood said. “He does not have a ­predisposition to engage in domestic violence.

“In my opinion, given what the court has been told, he has good prospects of rehabilitation.”

Justice Southwood also took into account that it would be ­harder than usual for the victim, who was pregnant, to visit the man in jail due to Covid measures.

“The offender’s partner is ­expecting a young child,” he said.

“Any period of imprisonment is likely to be far more onerous than it has previously been.

“His wife and young family will soon be very highly dependent on him and life will be much harder for them if he is in prison.”

Barkly MLA Steve Edgington. Picture: Annabel Bowles

Justice Southwood acknowledged the man’s problems with alcohol.

“The court is treating you as a responsible adult who appreciates there is a problem with ­alcohol but you have to be responsible and make sensible decisions,” he said.

“If you commit another domestic violence offence, in addition to any sentence that is imposed on you for that offence, I will restore the whole of the two years and three months and you will serve that time in prison.”

The conditions of the man’s suspended sentence included him abstaining from consuming ­alcohol, being under the super­vision of Community Corrections and undergoing alcohol testing by Probation and Parole officers.

A Correctional Services spokesman said the department could not comment on an individual’s monitoring or alcohol testing.

Territory Families, which is ­responsible for responding to allegations where a child has been harmed or is at risk of harm, ­refused to reveal whether the ­assaulted baby or her sibling were known to the department or had been the subject of previous child safety notifications.

The department also refused to reveal whether the infant remained in the care of her mother or what steps were being taken to ensure her safety when she was discharged from hospital.