CORONER BLAMES FATHER FOR BABY DEATH

A NEWBORN baby, violently killed by his father, was failed by the very people and organisations meant to protect him, a coroner has found. In a damning decision Coroner Olivia McTaggart found BJay Johnstone, of Railton, was a victim of persistent abuse, sweeping neglect and institutional oversight from the moment he was born. But ultimate responsibility for the six-week-old’s homicide has been laid at the feet of his father Simon Adam Johnstone. “BJay died as the result of at least two episodes of severe trauma to his head inflicted by his father,” Ms McTaggart said in Hobart’s Coroner’s Court yesterday. “Those injuries were inflicted in a setting of extensive physical abuse of BJay ... between his birth on 14 October 2012 and his hospitalisation on 2 November 2012. “The pattern of injuries on BJay’s body was characteristic of abuse of the most severe kind.” BJay suffered severe brain injury, a fractured skull, multiple rib fractures and fractures to both femurs and right pelvis. The coronial inquest, which lasted for 10 months and had 44 witnesses called, also found: BJAY’S mother Fleur Atkin, 20, did not protect BJay and could have prevented his death. But her failure to act was in part because of the family violence and control perpetrated on her by Johnstone. GRANDMOTHER Hellen Dykstra and uncle Ashley Richelme could have saved the baby if they removed him from the home. CHILD Protection Services did not protect BJay. If it acted, BJay’s death would not have occurred. TASMANIA Police failed to ensure BJay’s safety.

Ms McTaggart said BJay was born to parents emotionally and psychologically illequipped to have a baby.

Both had suffered extensive physical child abuse amid highly dysfunctional upbringings.

Their short relationship before having BJay was marked “by homelessness, drug use and family violence”.

It was against this backdrop that BJay’s short life soon became brutal.

Abuse at the hands of his fa- ther began at the hospital just after birth and included having his ribs broken in the first six days of his life.

The violence, as a result of Johnstone’s “sheer anger”, continued during the 19 days he spent at home in Railton until his hospitalisation at the Mersey Hospital.

Ms McTaggart said BJay’s crying triggered “high levels of anger and frustration, including a loss of control” in his 23year-old father.

Left alone in the couple’s bedroom he “perpetrated severe acts of violence upon BJay, disguising the sound of his violence by either singing loudly over BJay’s cries or loudly mimicking BJay’s cries.”

On November 2 grandmother Hellen Dykstra observed “BJay’s eyes were rolling, the top of his head swollen and that he was limp, pale and unresponsive.”

He was rushed to the Mersey Hospital before being flown to Hobart for specialist care.

Chris Williams from the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Hobart Hospital examined BJay.

The injuries amounted to one of the most severe cases of child abuse in the doctor’s 26year career. Even if he survived BJay was unlikely to ever talk, see, feed or walk.

Dr Williams indicated the skull fracture was the result “of blows with severe force”.

Overwhelming medical opinion, including advice from the neurosurgical team at the Royal Children’s Hospital in