A prominent sportsman has been found not guilty of breaking a baby’s ribs and collarbone.
It took the jury about four hours to unanimously find the man, whose name is suppressed, not guilty of injuring with reckless disregard and an alternative charge of assault following a three-week trial in the Dunedin District Court.
The prosecution claimed the man lost patience with the unsettled baby on July 16, 2023 while the infant’s mother was at the gym, squeezing him after a “brain explosion” and breaking more than a dozen of his ribs and his collarbone.
But defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC called it a false accusation and argued there were other explanations for the baby’s injuries, including a vitamin D deficiency or microscopic fractures caused during birth.
“An accusation can never equal guilt,” she told the court during her closing address on Friday.
She called the prosecution’s theory rubbish, saying there was no evidence her client was at the end of his tether.
Her client spoke to police multiple times and gave evidence in court when he did not have to while facing earth-shattering accusations, Stevens said.
Prosecutor Robin Bates said the prosecution’s case was the man squeezed the baby in “pure frustration” after trying and failing to settle the infant in July 2023.
“We say it was a squeeze because of the nature and location of the fractures … large hands, a small baby,” Bates said.
The boy’s mother was away at the gym, but the man called her before putting the baby in the bassinet.
She arrived home, fed the boy and settled him and neither her nor neighbours who held him later that day noticed anything unusual, Stevens said.
A craniosacral therapist noted the baby was unsettled a day later, but did not find the ribs broken, she said.
It was only when the baby’s mother noticed a crackling in the infant’s back that she took him to the hospital, where the fractures were diagnosed and files were sent to Starship Hospital in Auckland for review.
The evidence not only raised significant doubts about the prosecution’s claim, but contradicted them entirely, Stevens said.
Her client has been described by multiple witnesses as thoughtful, gentle, patient and kind, Stevens said.
rnz.co.nz
