Father found not guilty of cruelty to five month old baby

A father has been found not guilty of assaulting his five-month-old daughter who had bleeding in the brain, a fractured collar bone and bruising to her face and body when she was taken to Cork University Hospital (CUH) in January 2021.

The 31-year-old man went on trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court a fortnight ago charged with three offences.

The child's father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with causing serious harm to her on 4 January 2021. This was the day the parents of the child brought her to CUH after a period of sustained vomiting.

The father of the child was also charged with assault causing harm to the girl between 25 November and 15 December 2020 and with willfully assaulting or ill-treating the child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering to the child’s health or seriously affect the child’s wellbeing. He was acquitted of all three charges.

The jurors heard that the child suffered bruising to her face, stomach, abdomen and buttock as well as a fractured collar bone, an injury to deep soft tissue under the spine and blood on the surface of the brain and bleeding behind the eyes.

Consultant Opthamalogist, Dr Sarah Moran said in evidence that she found extensive haemorrhage at the front of the retina, within the retina and underneath the retina in both eyes of the child.

Dr Moran said that the injury was "highly suggestive" of shaken baby syndrome.

She said she was of the opinion that the injury could not have been sustained in an accidental fall as such a level of bleeding was usually only seen in high velocity impacts such as car crashes .

Dr Moran said that it was impossible to measure the extent of the damage of such retinal bleeds in such a young child. However, she is sure it will impact on her sight.

"There is no way that the vision from the centre of the eye was not affected by the level of macular retinal haemorrhage … there is no doubt but with that level of bleeding in the centre of the eye that the function of the eye was affected."

The grandmother of the child also gave evidence at the trial.

She was cross examined by defence senior counsel Ray Boland. Two photographs of the infant which were allegedly taken by her father were entered in to evidence as defence exhibits.

The father of the child claimed that the photographs were taken on occasions after the alleged incidents for which he was on trial and during times when the grandmother was taking care of his daughter.

The photographs entered in to the defence exhibit are dated the 15 February 2023 and 1 March 2023 respectively.

Mr Boland showed the grandmother the first picture which appeared to be of the child at the centre of the case with a small bruise on one of her thighs. The grandmother said that the photo was fake and that the child never had this bruise.

The second photograph was of the child with a scratch and a bruise on one of her thighs. The grandmother stated that the child did have a scratch but she insisted was no bruise.

She said that the bruise was "added in" to the photograph. When asked by Mr Boland if she was claiming that the bruising was photoshopped in, she agreed that was the case.

The man was found not guilty of all three charges this afternoon by the jury of seven women and five men.