Man accused of killing baby ‘told medic to do something’

A FATHER accused of murdering his six-month-old son told the doctor who first arrived at the scene to ‘do something’, a court has heard.

Dr Diarmuid Murray added that as soon as he arrived he formed the opinion the baby was dead.

Dr Murray was giving evidence on day two of the Central Criminal Court trial of John Tighe, 40, of Lavallyroe, Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, who denies murdering his son Joshua Sussbier Tighe at his home on June 1, 2013.

Dr Murray told prosecuting counsel Paul Murray SC that he was on call on June 1, 2013 when a call came in that help was urgently needed in Lavallyroe, where a six-month-old baby was choking on a baby wipe.

He arrived, jumped out of the jeep and ran up to the steps leading to the house when Mr Tighe came running out the door with the baby in his arms, the court heard. They ran inside, but Dr Murray said that, as soon as he saw the baby, he formed the impression he was dead. He was flaccid and his lips were blue.

Mr Tighe placed the baby on the floor and knelt at his feet. The doctor knelt at Joshua’s head and put his index finger in the baby’s mouth. He could feel a tissue in the pharynx, immediately above and blocking the larynx. He tried but could not move it and could not see it. He said the effect of a piece of tissue lodged in this position would be asphyxiation and death within minutes.

Paramedics arrived and attached a defibrillator to Joshua’s chest, but the heart showed no signs of electrical activity and Dr Murray formally pronounced death at 1.40pm. He said he did not have any conversation with the accused other than to tell him his baby was dead.

Under cross-examination, Dr Murray told Mícheál O’Higgins SC, defending, that when he arrived and they knelt with baby Joshua in the house, Mr Tighe was ‘quite upset and was exhorting me, “Do something”’. However, Dr Murray said there was nothing he could do.

The trial continues.