Man sent to jail for causing injuries to infant
A man who tried to force feed and then shook a 5-month-old baby has been sent to jail.
Robert Peter Leslie Kelly, 31, who was separated from the baby’s mother, was left in charge of his son while she went to pick up her older children.
When the mother returned to the house she was concerned for the baby, who had pinprick red spots on him. She took him to a medical centre and was sent on to hospital. The baby had a torn tongue, a small rupture over his forehead, spots on his neck, bruising on his chest, more bruising near his left ear, and a bleed in his head.
Kelly had admitted a charge of injuring the baby with reckless disregard for his safety, and was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court yesterday to two years and three months’ jail.
Defence counsel Kiran Paima said Kelly did not enter the room on September 6 with the offending in mind, and he needed help in preventing any recurrence.
Judge Michael Crosbie said Kelly forced a bottle into the baby’s mouth, causing bleeding, and when the baby cried, Kelly shook him.
The mother’s victim impact report said it was a waiting game to check that the baby met all his development milestones as he grew older.
She felt she had let the baby down, and was not there to keep him safe. Judge Michael Crosbie told the sobbing mother in the back of the court that none of this was her fault, and every child should expect their father to take the same care as their mother.
He said Kelly had seven other convictions for violence, and more convictions for breaching court orders.
The baby may have serious long-term physical and psychological effects, but the prognosis was likely to be positive in the long term, the judge said.