'Her ear was nearly down by her jaw': Man found guilty of shattering infant girl's skull
A young man accused of shattering the skull of his girlfriend’s infant daughter has been found guilty by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
The five women and seven men on the jury took 1 hour and 23 mins to return their unanimous guilty verdicts in the case today.
They found him guilty of assault causing serious harm to the child on December 31, 2016. On the charges of wilful neglect of the infant and the infant’s two-year-old sister on dates in December 2016 they also found him guilty.
The defendant, 26, is not identified in order to protect the identity of the children.
Judge Ó Donnabháin remanded the accused in custody for sentence on February 22 to allow for preparation of a victim impact statement.
The judge also expressed concern about the defendant’s apparent detachment during the case but did not request a psychiatric report.
During the week-long trial, the mother of a nine-month-old girl testified that she returned home on the afternoon in question to see her ex-partner holding the infant “and her head was deformed on a huge scale".
The young mother wept as she told the judge and jury that her daughter was visibly injured: “Her ear was nearly down by her jaw. You could see blood vessels. She just seemed in shock. I screamed. I was crying, like I am now."
“I started firing angry question at him, why he did not answer the phone (earlier in the afternoon when she was out in the park with her other daughter and her own mother). He said, 'I was downstairs smoking a cigarette (at the front door). I heard three bangs. She was on the floor'. I remember shouting at him. I asked him to leave. He asked me could he take the Playstation I got him for Christmas – that was the end of all, just get the hell out of my house,” she testified.
The defendant denied the offence.
The children’s mother said her relationship with the father of the two children had finished and she ended up in a relationship with the defendant.
She said she found it strange that the defendant would make comments about the two children stating that in various odd respects – such as the older girl’s ears - they had a likeness to their father.
On the day in question, the infant was being minded by the defendant who had been in a relationship with the child’s mother for the past few months. When the child's mother returned from the park, the infant was visibly injured.
A member of the ambulance crew who arrived at the house to bring the nine-month-old to hospital said the defendant told her that the infant was sitting in the cot crying when he went up to the bedroom.
Paediatric consultant, Professor Jonathan Hourihan testified that there was a very significant skull fracture where there was a shattering of the skull.
Commenting on other fractures found in the infant he said: “It is not one skull fracture, it is nearly ten fractures.”
