Father convicted for infant assault

A father who was stressed due to financial pressure seriously assaulted his infant son by shaking him and yesterday he got a five-year suspended jail sentence.

It was the second case of its kind — infants being seriously injured by being shaken by the father — to appear before Cork Circuit Criminal Court this week. The case earlier in the week was adjourned for sentence.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said in relation to yesterday’s case, “Even men are aware that because of the physiology of a child most of the weight is in his head, and if you shake a child you will do damage. What he did was fundamentally wrong. He knew at all stages he was wrong.