Man faces long jail term for assaulting baby daughter

A man has admitted repeatedly assaulting his baby daughter, causing 14 fractures of varying ages to the child in her first four months of life.

After lying to police and spending more than two years before the courts defending child abuse-related charges the man has now pleaded guilty and will be sentenced.

The man cannot legally be named, to protect his daughter’s privacy.

The man is facing up to seven years in prison after being convicted on a charge of causing the 4-monthold grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.

Judge Jonathan Moses granted the

Herald access to the summary of facts which outlines what the man did to the child and the extent of her injuries.

On February 18, 2018 she was transported to Middlemore Hospital for assessment after an x-ray at a local clinic showed a fracture in her arm.

Staff contacted police when the explanation for the injury did not match the age of the fracture — it was much older than a day. The next day the baby underwent a full skeletal survey — a series of x-rays of all the bones in the body.

In total 14 fractures were found. She also had breaks in both of her arms.

The paediatrician who treated the child said her fractures were “classically associated with non-accidental injury”.

“Taking into account all the injuries, in the absence of a plausible explanation and with no definite history of trauma to satisfactorily explain the presence of multiple fractures of differing ages, it is my opinion that the inflicted injuries are most likely non-accidental,” he said.

Police said the injuries were either caused by the father’s behaviour — “knowing that on each occasion there was a risk grievous bodily harm could be caused”.

“Based on the medical evidence, [the father] caused these injuries using a significant degree of force.”

Police were notified of the injuries on February 20 and two days later a District Court judge granted a surveillance device warrant. The warrant allowed police to intercept calls between the baby’s parents.

On March 18 they overheard the man telling his partner that he had “told his mother the truth” about what happened to the baby — that he was “always rough with her” and that she always cried for him.

“He mentioned in the call that he would see what he needed to do to hand himself in the next day,” the summary said.

Despite his promise the man did not hand himself in.

Police moved to the next phase of their investigation and interviewed the man — three times.

The first time he said the baby’s older sister had hit her with a plastic toy, causing both skull fractures.

He explained that one arm fracture was from when he picked her up by the limb from a car seat.

He didn’t provide any explanation for the other fractures.

In the second interview he had no further explanation.

Thirteen days later during the third interview he told police he thought the baby had been injured as a result of him “handling and holding” her in a “rough” manner.

The man will be sentenced on May 29 in the Manukau District Court.