Father’s horrific ill-treatment of infant revealed

INJURIES inflicted on a four-month-old boy by his father, in Co Kerry, could have been fatal and were described as “very serious” by Judge Carroll Moran at the Circuit Criminal Court, in Tralee, yesterday.

The child sustained injuries over a six-week period in the home he shared with his young parents, who were not able to cope with a baby, the court heard.

The father, then 24, became irritated with the child’s crying, especially when he had drink and drugs consumed, stated Sgt Miriam Mulhall Nolan, of Killarney, who investigated the case.

Injuries, which included a fractured skull, three fractured ribs, black eyes, “carpet burns” to his nose, and bruising to ankles and wrists, came to light when a paediatrician at Kerry General Hospital became concerned after the child was admitted on April 13, 2009.

The paediatrician, Dr Khan, found the injuries were not caused accidentally and one of the broken ribs was healing, suggesting the injury had been inflicted at an earlier stage.

A social worker from the HSE contacted Killarney Gardaí who started an investigation. The father, now 26, pleaded guilty to willfully ill-treating a child in his care on a date between February 2, 2009, and April 13, 2009, under the Children’s Act 2001.

Sgt Mulhall Nolan said the baby had lived with his mother and her parents and had been very well cared for until mid-February in 2009. At that stage, the accused, the child’s mother, then aged 18, and the baby, then two months, set up house together as a family unit.

When first questioned, the accused blamed the mother of the child, but admitted later to a psychologist and subsequently to gardaí that it was he who had inflicted the injuries.

“In the two-month period he lived with the victim, he said the crying would irritate him and he would set about frightening the child and shaking him,” the sergeant testified.

“He just wasn’t coping... and he admitted on one occasion he let the child fall.”

One day, the baby started to cry, his mother wasn’t coping very well and she gave the baby to the father. She left the room. His father then started shaking him and he hit the baby’s nose off the side of a cot and he couldn’t stop bleeding.

The child was taken to SouthDoc GP service which immediately sent him to Kerry General Hospital.

Social worker Gaye Browne said some of the injuries could have been fatal, according to experts.

However, the child was now a happy toddler and showed no obvious signs of the trauma, apart from nightmares. Both sets of grandparents and the siblings of the parents were sharing his care and were devastated by the events.

The mother of the child was also entering therapy to understand her own behaviour.

“It will take a great effort on her behalf to see if she can care for her son unsupervised in the future,” Ms Browne said.

The court also heard how “credible excuses” had been offered by both parents when their families became concerned about bruises.

Defence counsel Brian McInerney said the accused was responding well to counselling. He acknowledged what he had done was a crime and wholly unacceptable. He now saw his child regularly, under supervision

“His son will have serious questions later in his life. The accused man’s biggest fear is of when his child confronts him and asks him to account for what he did,” Mr McInerney said.

Judge Carroll Moran said the accused would have to live with the conviction for the rest of his life as a big stain on his reputation.

After detailing the child’s injuries, the judge said: “It shows a pattern of cruelty which puts this case into a very serious category. It’s not just a case of neglect.”

Judge Moran, who said the accused was facing three years in prison, adjourned the case for a year on condition the accused continued to receive therapy and abstain from illicit drugs.