Boy hurt in two events, court told
Ihaka Stokes suffered two separate injuries, at least one of them nonaccidental, the night before he died, a court has heard.
Troy Taylor, the former partner of Ihaka’s mother Mikala Stokes, is on trial in the High Court at Christchurch, charged with murdering and assaulting 14-month-old Ihaka in July 2015. He has pleaded not guilty.
Paediatrician Dr Janet Ferguson, who attended to Ihaka in Christchurch Hospital the night he died, yesterday described the extensive bruising he suffered to his forehead, jaw, ears, neck, arms, shoulders and back.
Two bruises, one to the forehead and one to the jaw, were older than the other injuries.
The forehead bruise was of a type common to young children as they became mobile and fell accidentally, Ferguson said.
‘‘The bruise on the right side of [Ihaka’s] jaw is in an uncommon place for an accidental bruise and is very extensive.
‘‘In my opinion Ihaka Stokes would not have accidentally sustained [that] bruise.’’
The court has already heard that Ihaka was seen by a doctor on the morning of July 3, the day he died. GP Angus Chambers examined the bruises. He described the forehead bruise to the jury as ‘‘slight’’ and the jaw bruise as ‘‘moderate’’. Ihaka flinched when Chambers pressed on his jaw.
Taylor told police that on the night of July 2 he heard two ‘‘bangs’’ from Ihaka’s room, and thought the toddler had fallen over while trying to stand up in his cot.
Ihaka was ‘‘a bit dazed’’ when he checked on him, Taylor said, and he kept the toddler up for more than an hour to ensure he wasn’t concussed.
Ferguson told the court the cot’s dimensions meant the jaw bruise could not have come from a fall.
‘‘The shape of this bruise, which follows the contour of the jaw, has been caused by something that impacted the contour of the jaw. That’s very unlikely to occur on the surface of the cot. The pictures I’ve been shown have very rectangular, straight edges rather than anything that conforms to the shape of the jaw.’’
Questioned by defence counsel Phil Shamy, Ferguson agreed her initial report did not exclude a cot fall as a possible cause for the bruise and even offered a scenario of Ihaka’s right jaw directly taking the impact of such a fall as a ‘‘credible explanation’’.
Ferguson could not say if she had discussed the subsequent exclusion of the cot fall theory with prosecutors or police since writing her report.
Forensic pathologist Dr Amy Spark detailed to the jury the 59 injuries Ihaka suffered. Head injuries, including haemorrhages and brain swelling, were listed as the cause of death.
‘‘The injuries were not explainable by a single accidental injury and are extremely unlikely to be explainable by multiple accidental injuries,’’ Spark said.
The prosecution and defence agree Ihaka’s injuries were nonaccidental.
The trial continues today.