Attacked baby on life-support ‘suffered assault before’
AN 11-WEEK-OLD baby girl – who is fighting for her life in hospital following a serious attack – also suffered an earlier assault, medical reports indicate.
The infant, from the northeast of the country, has suffered serious head injuries as well as broken bones – and has ‘historical bruising’ on her back and other parts of her body, the Irish Daily Mail has learned.
This medical information has been passed on to investigating gardaí. Sources say it ‘strongly suggests’ the baby girl suffered an assault in the first few weeks of her young life, ahead of the serious attack which has left her currently clinging to life.
It is understood that the 11-week-old is on a life-support machine at Temple Street Hospital in Dublin. Because of her young age, and the extent of her head injuries, her chances of survival are diminishing.
An 18-year-old man was arrested last Wednesday in connection with the serious assault on the infant, then released without charge on Friday. Gardaí are now preparing a file for the DPP.
The young man, who is understood to be known to the infant, was arrested in Dublin on suspicion of assault causing serious harm. The baby girl sustained her significant injuries on Monday of last week.
Should the baby girl die, the case will be upgraded to a murder inquiry, sources say.
It emerged on Wednesday that gardaí were treating as ‘suspicious’ the serious injuries sustained by the baby girl.
The infant had been rushed to Drogheda hospital on Monday evening last week by her young parents. Such was the extent of her injuries that the child was transferred to Temple Street on Tuesday.
Sources confirmed that the manner in which the infant sustained her injuries was being treated as ‘suspicious’ and that ‘accidental injuries’ had been ‘essentially ruled out’. The baby’s father gave a statement to gardaí, and said he’d been walking with his daughter on Monday evening last week.
He claimed that while they were out walking, a number of individuals ‘knocked him and the buggy over’.
The man said the baby fell from her buggy and sustained her traumatic injuries. He said he then returned to the nearby apartment he shares with his girlfriend, and the baby was rushed to hospital.