Baby assault accused ‘confessed’, trial hears

COURT: Stephen Graham opened up during boozy chat, claims former friend

A man accused of assaulting a newborn baby which suffered a fractured skull and broken ribs “confessed” to a friend, Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court was told.

Stephen Graham, 27, who is accused of squeezing, shaking and throwing the three-week old tot, allegedly told former pal Kevin Petrie he “couldn’t believe what he had done”.

But when asked to repeat what he had been told, Mr Petrie, 33, told the court Graham said he “couldn’t believe what had happened”.

Under examination by both the prosecution and defence, he insisted his original statement was correct.

The so-called “confession” was made during a late-night conversation when the friends had been drinking heavily and taking the drug ecstasy.

Mr Petrie said: “He said that he couldn’t believe what he had done. I tried to elaborate but he wouldn’t speak about it. He said he didn’t want to.

“We just carried on drinking for the rest of the night, we never spoke about it again.”

Mr Petrie also admitted he may have drunk a litre bottle or half litre of vodka that night and taken one or two ecstasy tablets.

As he described the conversation, Solicitor Advocate Chris Fyffe asked him: “Did someone put you up to this?

Mr Petrie replied: “No one put me up to it, the police came and asked me what happened, I told them what happened, that’s it.”

The conversation was said to have taken place late in the summer of 2014, several months after the alleged assault.

Mr Petrie’s partner Katarzyna Kosowska, 30, also told the court that shortly after the child was born Graham had said “the bairn is crying all night, he’s doing my f ****** nut in” and appeared stressed.

Rachel Brunton, 25, visited the baby around the date of the alleged assault and saw blue marks on his forehead, which his mother was unable to explain.

She said: “I noticed some blue marks on his head. I waited a little bit and asked her what the marks were. She said she didn’t know.”

Expert witness Dr Alan Sprigg, a consultant paediatric radiologist, concluded that the injuries suffered bore the hallmarks of a single event, although he admitted: “I can’t exclude multiple events.”

His report stated that the pattern of images he examined were common when a carer became irritated with a baby, lost self control and seized it, shook it and threw it down in frustration.

It also said it would be evident to the carer that excessive force had been used and the baby had been hurt as it would be crying and screaming.

He said: “If you are using the level of force I have indicated to cause the various fractures, there has to be excessive force beyond reasonable normal handling.”

Graham denies squeezing the baby’s torso, repeatedly shaking him and throwing him on to a hard surface to his severe injury and to the danger of his life at an address in Fife between April 20 and 28 2014.

The trial continues on Monday.