Father is cleared of killing his infant son
MAN FOUND NOT GUILTY FOLLOWING THREE-WEEK TRIAL
A DAD has been cleared of killing his 15-week-old baby son at the family’s Newcastle home.
Civil engineer Andrew Chiu was accused of “vigorously” shaking the youngster “in temper or frustration” because he was crying and would not settle at his former house in Kingston Park in July 2016.
Prosecutors claimed the 35-yearold’s actions caused bleeding on baby Nathan’s brain, leading to cardiac and respiratory arrest.
But Chiu, of Summerhill Street, Newcastle, denied manslaughter and was cleared of the charge by a jury on Thursday after a trial lasting more than three weeks at Newcastle Crown Court. Jurors took four hours to unanimously find the dad not guilty of killing Nathan.
During the trial, Chiu told the court it was “not his personality” to do such a thing and claimed it was “extremely distressing” for it to be suggested he had hurt Nathan.
When the allegation that he had lost control and shook Nathan was put to him, earlier in the trial, Chiu replied: “I would never do anything to hurt my children. I loved Nathan. There’s not a day goes by I don’t think about him. I would just not do that.”
Previously, the jury was told an ambulance was called to Chiu’s former family home in Velville Court in Kingston Park on July 29, 2016.
Jurors heard that Nathan was found unresponsive and not breathing by paramedics. The 15-week-old was taken to hospital but did not recover and his life support was switched off just a few days later.
The court was told that Nathan was found to have bleeding on the brain and in his eye, as well as acute bleeding in nerve roots throughout the length of his spinal cord.
Jurors heard Chiu and his wife Samantha had taken turns to attend to their son during the night on July 29, before Chiu went upstairs to see him.
Chiu said he picked Nathan up and soothed him as he was crying loudly and “thrashing his arms” before putting him back in the cot.
The dad said he went back downstairs and the couple could hear cries through the baby monitor change to “whimpers” before they eventually stopped altogether.
The court was told that when he checked on his son 15 minutes later, he found Nathan “did not look right” and his head was “slumped over”.
Chiu said: “I’ve thought about it long and hard and I’m convinced, 100% certain, I did not do anything to put harm in my son’s way.”