Toddler dies after being punched

Press, 15 August 1978, Page 6

Toddler dies after being punched

PA Dunedin; A two-year-old child died of internal bleeding a few hours after she had been punched in the head and stomach, the Magistrate’s Court at Dunedin was told' yesterday. Russell Douglas Laurie, aged 23, a factory mixer, appeared before Mr J. D. Murray, S.M., on a charge of assaulting the girl and another charge of assaulting! the girl’s six-year-old brother.; He pleaded guilty to both! (charges through counsel, Mrs I J. Medlicott. I Sergeant F. Lynch said that; ■ the police had been called toj la house in Andersons Bay, at| 1.3 p.m. on August 5, after a 'doctor had reported that the; (child, aged two years 11; ■months, had died. I A post-mortem examination (conducted on August 7

iisliowed that death had been ■caused by extensive internal ; 5 abdominal bleeding. It also i ’ showed that the child had ] 1 congenital abnormality of the 1 5 blood vessels which affected i ■ the extent of the bleeding. ;< ( Medical opinion was that this haemorrhage would have ■ been caused by some physi- i • cal force, but the force might ; ; have had a greater effect < ’ than it would have had on a 1 ■ normal healthy child. I j The pathologist also ob- < ■jserved a number of bruises I i to the stomach, head and eye. ] ! I Sergeant Lynch said. i In an interview, Laurie said I 55 that he had associated with i ’! the child’s mother for about 1 -112 months. On August 4 he > >|had slapped the girl on the 1 ! l bottom twice. About midnight ' l |he got her up to go to the ! II toilet, and became irate when | Hshe would not go. |i

He yelled at the child and put her back to bed. She was crying and he lost his temper. He punched her four times, twice in the stomach and twice in the head, using considerable force. He then went to bed. When he awoke at 11.45 the next morning, the child appeared to be seriously ill, and a doctor was called. He found her to be dead. “Because of the medical condition revealed in the post-mortem examination, the possibility of the injuries that caused death having been received by some other means could not be completely excluded and for this reason, the defendant is not facing a more serious charge,” Sergeant Lynch said. As the result of what the police were told by the dead ! child’s brother and sister, the

police took possession of a billiard cue from the house. The boy said that he had been hit on the head and the bottom with the cue on August 3. Laurie admitted to the police that he had hit the children with the cue, but had hit the girls only jokingly. He had hit the boy because he was wearing the wrong shoes Ip go to school. Applying for bail, Mrs Medlicott said that the two other children were now in the custody of the Social Welfare Department. The Magistrate declined the application, and remanded Laurie in custody to August 21 for a proabtion report and sentence.