Father who threatened to throw baby down stairs jailed
A 24-year-old father who dangled his baby daughter over a banister and threatened to throw her down the stairs has been jailed for six months.
The Limerick man denied two separate charges of assaulting his daughter who was just shy of her second birthday when the offences took place in July 2002.
The child's mother told the court that on July 16 the defendant, who was living with her at the time, was "cranky" because his daughter had woken him up from his sleep.
The mother said he took his young daughter and hung over the banister and threatened to throw her down the stairs. On July 24 the court heard that the infant was crying in the kitchen when her father came in and slapped her a few times in the side of the head.
"He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up three flights of stairs," said the mother. The defendant then threw the child on a bed and closed the door, the court heard.
The child's mother said she could hear a muffled sound and she knew her partner was blocking her daughter's mouth with his hand "because she had heard that sound before".
The witness said the defendant had hit the child on other occasions and anytime she asked him to stop he would hit her twice as hard. "They are the two days I remember the most, but everyday he'd hit her and he'd slap her across the face," she said.
"Anytime I asked him to stop he'd hit her twice as hard," she added. During cross-examination by Inspector Seamus Gallagher, the defendant said he had never hit his children and dismissed the allegations as "all lies".
When he was shown photographs of the little girl's injuries taken by a doctor who examined her, the accused said he "hadn't a clue what happened to her".
Dr Fionnuala Malone told the court that when she examined the little girl on July 25, 2002, she observed a number of injuries including facial bruising near her left ear, bruising on her inner thigh and scratches on her shoulder blade.
Solicitor for the accused John Cooke told the court that his client had lived with his partners for just three months and that he had not had any more contact with the family since the offences which took place three years ago.
Mr Cooke said that this was not a situation where there was a continued risk adding "whatever was going on then is no longer going on".
Judge Tom O'Donnell said he accepted that there had been a delay in the matter coming to court and that things had seem to settle down. However, he added that he had to bear in mind that the recipient of the defendant's anger "was a defenceless child".
Judge O'Donnell sentenced the accused to six months in prison on both charges and ordered that the jail terms run concurrently.
