Baby bashed, S.M. told

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34104, 17 March 1976, Page 10

Baby bashed, S.M. told

Evidence of the “battered baby,; syndrome” was seen in an uii-d , conscious convulsing child with I a severely fractured skull and); I arm, the Magistrate’s Court was!; j told yesterday. ; < 1 A 20-year-old woman appeared:' ; on a charge of injuring herI‘ -three-year-old daughter in such 1 circumstances that if death had ! been caused she would have been 1 j guilty of manslaughter. j Mr B. A. Palmer. S.M., re-> ( I served his decision on the case'] j until today. It was alleged that the child’s 11 I injuries were caused by mal-’ j treatment by her mother. Sergeant B. G. Saunders said;, ' that the defendant’s eldest • I ! daughter was admitted to Christ- ■ church Hospital early on the < morning of August 6. Because of 1 the nature of the child’s in- ■ 1 I juries the police were notified. : The child, who was admitted j i to tiie intensive care unit Witt 1 : i severe head injuries, was con- < vulsing and unconscious, said Dr B N. Taylor, a pediatrician at > ! Christchurch Hospital Dr Taylor said that when he examined the child there was a fair chanee of her dying from ‘ i her injuries. There was marked j evidence of brain damage from, !the head injnrv- as well as eviI dene* at bruising to the chest'

and back and a very recent frac-, I ture of the right arm. I; The child was injured to such an extent that It was unlikely h she would ever lead an independ-11 ent life, said Dr Taylor. She I 1 would be marked intellectually 11 : and physically impaired for the!: : rest of her life. “The child's mother told me| | that the child had fallen from' I : a chair but in my opinion thg i . injury’ was rather more severe ’ j than this story would suggest.”! i Dr Taylor said “I think it Is I. . highly likely that the child’s head I ! had been bashed repeatedly.” : Detective Sergeant D. N. Scott, i I the officer in charge of the case.' , said when he spoke to the de- ■ fondant on August 6 that sho said her daughter had been sit- < : ting up to the tea table on a , kitchen chair. When she left the ' ! table for a minute she heard i : a fall and turned to see her , I daughter on the floor The de- ! fendant said when she picked the child up she was "floppy.” , When the child did not respond, i the defendant called an ambulance. In a second interview on Aug- 1 : ust 12 the defendant had told the police that she had become : vnnoyed with her daughter when I she would not go to the toilet. - The defendant had said she I ■'pushed her daughter in nga and’!

the child had banged against a, wall. The defendant had alco said that she now realised she had been pretty rough on her daug: ter and had been too hard on her over the previous few months. A consultant psychiatric spec I ialist, Mr L. Ding, who had been assessing the defendant, said he considered tliat. although the woman was fit to care for her two younger children, the injured child should not be re I turned to her mother’s care Mr Ding said he could find I no evidence that the defendar' ' had deliberately intended to In iure her child but she had been feeling frustrated and mentally confused at the time. Mr Ding said the defendant who was in the eighth month of pregnancy, was an emotlonalh inadequate person. Counsel 'Mr S. G. Erberi, said it was not known whether the child’s injuries were caused from the bang on the head in the morning, from her fall from tte chair in the evening, or a combination of both Tile prosecution must prove that the injuries were caused h the defendant and they have nn’ proved the injuries were caus’d by her. either totally or partial!', 'ha said.