Warning: This article discusses allegations of child abuse and may be disturbing to some readers.
A mother who previously lost a child by inexplicable circumstances said she panicked when her new four -month -old baby wrapped her arms.
“I was screaming with the top of my voice and saying his name. I didn’t get it violently, but all I know was that I wanted to wake him up,” she said in a police interview.
But the crown claimed that the baby suffered non -accidental brain damage in the hands of his mother, who is now on trial at the Whangārei District Court.
Moerewa’s 29 -year -old woman was accused of injuring herself with the intention of causing serious body damage after an incident in 2019, when she was at home alone with her baby.
On Monday, the trial began, in which three evident interviews were played with a jury of nine women and two men.
The jury heard that the baby was born four months prematurely with kidney problems and at the time had the body of a six -week child and could not support his head.
On July 1, the couple presented to the local hospital with the baby that the mother reported, was soft and needed CPR.
It was found that the baby was bleeding in the brain, right eye, torn veins and hypoxic cerebral damage due to lack of oxygen.
The baby survived, but for next year, the mother was interviewed three times by Detective Sergeant Natalie Syddall, who was trying to understand what had happened.
In her initial police interview, the mother claimed that she was unaware of how the baby suffered the injuries. However, the court heard that in a follow -up interview weeks later, its story gave a different turn.
The mother said that, a day before the baby was taken to the hospital, she had left him alone in a security guard while taking her husband a water drink and, when she returned, he faced the floor with his forehead lying on a metal bar.
She told police that there were no bruises or signs of pain, and later, that night she put him back in the security guard to observe her movement.
She said the baby started pushing behind the security guard until her head almost touched the floor.
“That’s how I knew it happened,” she said.
Syddall said it was a reasonable assumption that a six -week baby would have no movement as she had described.
The next day, after her husband went out for work and she fed the baby, she said he suddenly stifled in her arms, and her eyes began to close slowly.
It was a situation strangely similar to his last baby, who had not survived.
“I lost [redacted] In my arms like that and I thought I lost him, ”she said.
The woman then revealed that she had not failed to tell something to the police.
“His body went white. He was lifeless in my arms. I cried for his name. I was just screaming and I held him like this and I stirred him … [redacted] to wake up! I felt him everywhere strict, ”she told Syddall.
The woman admitted to shake it for a few seconds before reliving the baby with RCP.
When asked why she never said anything before, she was afraid that everyone, including her husband, thought she was careless.
Once at Starship Hospital in Auckland, Syddall said he was obvious to pediatrician Patrick Kelly, someone hurt the baby, but the woman said she was afraid to publicize what happened in front of her husband.
“I was afraid. I knew, if he’s not around, I can tell the doctor what happened I can’t be afraid. I couldn’t talk about the incident because his family, everyone is accusing me of the baby’s death,” she said.
Syddall told the woman that there was inconsistencies and lies throughout her statements and presented text messages that she had sent to her mother advising that the baby had an infection.
“I can’t tell them that he has injuries, they say a lot to me, like ‘I did it and I did it with my baby,'” she said.
“So if you said he had serious brain damage to non -accidental injuries, would you have a lot to explain to her?” Syddall asked the woman.
“Yes. She would say ‘you both did something with him.'”
Almost a year later, the woman was interviewed for the third time the final report was handed over to Dr. Kelly’s police about the baby’s health.
The baby suffered significant brain damage when shaking or violent trauma more severe than any normal handling of a baby.
Syddall told the woman that her version did not match the injuries suffered and if she had shaken the baby for frustration, she had to admit.
“I would have told you if I had shaken him for frustration,” she said.
The trial continues before Judge Gene Tomlinson.
Family violence
How to get help: If you are in danger now: • Phone to the police at 111 or ask your neighbors or friends who touch you.
• Run out and go where there are other people. Scream for help so your neighbors can hear it.
• Take the children with you. Don’t stop getting anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember that it is not your fault. Violence is never well.
Where to seek help or more information:
• Refuge for women: line of crisis – 0800 refuge or 0800 733 843 (available 24/7)
• Shine: Helpline – 0508 744 633 (Available 24/7)
• Not well: Family Violence Information Line – 0800 456 450
• Shakti: Specialized services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and children.
• Crisis line – 0800 742 584 (available 24/7)
• Ministry of Justice: to obtain information about family violence
• Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Patunga: National Network of Family Violence Services
• White tape: with the objective of eliminating men’s violence in relation to women.
– Shannon Pitman
