Girl’s injuries don’t suggest a fall, court told

Pathologist says likely cause was multiple blows or forceful impacts

The near-deadly brain injury and other wounds suffered by a young Calgary girl now confined to a wheelchair could not have come from a simple fall, a pathologist suggested Tuesday.

Dr. Matthew Orde told Crown prosecutor Pam Mccluskey the girl, whom Postmedia is not naming, suffered multiple injuries to her head as well as other parts of her body.

And Orde said the wounds weren’t consistent with the story provided by her then-stepfather, Tyler Eugene Laberge, of a fall and near drowning in a bathtub.

“(She) likely received multiple blows to the head, at the very least more than one,” said Orde, who reviewed medical records from the then-four-year-old’s hospital admissions.

The child was taken to Rockyview General Hospital on March 11, 2018, before being transferred to the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

Orde told Mccluskey the child also had multiple bruises to other areas of her body.

“This is indicative of multiple blows to her person.”

In his report, made an exhibit in Laberge’s trial, the doctor again indicated he didn’t believe the wounds could have come from a fall.

“The bruises to (her) body are in my opinion indicative of her having sustained injury by way of multiple blows, or possibly by way of her body having been knocked forcibly against a firm and unforgiving surface,” he wrote.

Orde said the child was given a three rating on the Glasgow Coma Scale, the lowest possible score available.

“GCS three means a score of three out of 15, meaning the patient is profoundly unconscious and unresponsive,” he said.

“In the morgue, a body would score three out of 15.”

He said the child suffered a subdural bleeding on her brain.

Laberge, 33, is charged with aggravated assault in connection with the child’s injuries.

Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Yoav Niv suggested the girl could have fallen in the bath, picked herself up and slipped and struck herself again.

Niv also suggested a panicked parent finding a child face down in a bathtub following a fall could cause additional bruises while pulling the child from the water.

The trial, which began Monday, is set for two weeks.