Court told ribs squeezed
A RADIOLOGIST has told a court that baby Matthew Baxter, who was allegedly murdered by his father, died with aged rib fractures that may have been caused by squeezing or punching.
Dr Anthony Lamont also told the Townsville Supreme Court jury that shaking may have caused Matthew’s severe brain haemorrhaging.
Nicholas Baxter is on trial after pleading not guilty to murdering his six- week- old son on November 3, 2011.
Dr Lamont yesterday told the court he could see 17 rib fractures in a skeletal survey done on November 7, the day after Matthew’s life support was switched off.
He said the fractures were healing and some were estimated to be seven to 10 days old, while others were three weeks old.
Dr Lamont said two rib fractures, to Matthew’s back, were “most likely caused by squeezing”.
He said there were a “heck of lot of fractures” to the front of the baby’s chest.
“You might think that perhaps a blow of some sort on to the baby’s chest would be big enough, perhaps a punch or something like that, would be big enough to break all those ribs at the same time,” he said.
“The degree of force would be way above what you would normally handle a child with. More than general play of a child.”
In his defence opening last Monday, barrister Lincoln Crowley said Mr Baxter did not shake his son to death.
“There will be expert witnesses called in the defence case who will give opinion evidence, putting their view, what they say are reasonable possibilities, medical causes, which will explain these medical findings,” he said.
“There will be issues about whether the rib fractures, what the prosecution says is rib frac- VITAL ROLE: Townsville Public Health Unit vector control officer Gareth Ehlers checks mosquito traps. tures, are in fact fractures. Or are they, in fact, evidence of bone deficiencies, bone density deficiencies, vitamin D deficiencies, rickets?”
Dr Lamont said the chest scans showed what were “clearly fractures, not rickets”. “The child does not have rickets. That I’m clear on, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
Photos of MRI brain scans taken on November 4, while Matthew was in the Townsville Hospital neonatal intensive care unit, were also shown to the jury yesterday.
Dr Lamont said Matthew’s brain appeared “swollen and very sick”, with subdural bleeding.
“The contrecoup injuries suggest strongly that this head has been impacted on something, quite what, I don’t know,” he said.
“With the extensive bleeding of the surface of the brain, I really think there’s been quite a lot of tearing to those bridging veins, with bleeding from that, and that really is an indicator towards shaking.”
The trial continues.