Child’s fatal injuries no accident, court told

Four-year-old Rebekah Oluwafemi suffered a “catastrophic” spinal injury at the hands of her father, a prosecutor said Monday at the start of a Calgary murder trial.

Crown lawyer Melissa Bond, in detailing the case she expects she and co-prosecutor Donna Spaner will call, said the girl also suffered “multiple non-accidental injuries” on the day of her Dec. 19, 2014, death.

And Bond told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Suzanne Bensler it’s the Crown’s theory that Rebekah’s father, Oluwatosin Oluwafemi, caused the little girl’s injuries.

“The injury to Rebekah’s cervical spine combined with the other non-accidental injures on her body will lead this court to the irrefutable inference of intention necessary for second-degree murder,” Bond said.

“The accused inflicted multiple non-accidental injuries on Rebekah on the 19th of December. One of the injuries caused to her spine led to her collapse and death.”

Oluwafemi, 43, was charged nearly a year after the girl was rushed to Peter Lougheed Centre where attempts to save her life failed.

Bond said Oluwafemi was the sole caregiver for his daughter that day after his wife, the girl’s mother, Itunu Oluwafemi, left for work around 8:30 a.m.

A furnace salesman attended the home around 12:20 p.m. and saw the girl alive.

But shortly after 3 p.m. Oluwafemi called his wife at work and she raced home, the prosecutor said.

When she arrived, the accused was performing CPR on his daughter.

Emergency services arrived at 3:40 p.m. to find the child wasn’t breathing and was in cardiac arrest.

Bond said the prosecution will call two pathologists, Dr. Christopher Milroy and Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo, to explain how the child died.

She said Adeagbo, who performed the autopsy on Rebekah, determined she had multiple injuries to her “head, abdomen, back and upper and lower extremities.”

Adeagbo identified bruises to both sides of the child’s head, bruising on her upper chest and “extensive” bruising and abrasions to her back and upper and lower limbs.

Milroy, who specializes in assessing child injuries, reviewed Adeagbo’s autopsy report as well as photographs of the girl.

“The Crown expects Dr. Milroy will testify that in the afternoon of Dec. 19, Rebekah suffered a catastrophic injury to her cervical spine,” Bond told Bensler. “This injury was the result of blunt force trauma.”

Milroy is also expected to testify he agrees with Adeagbo’s findings Rebekah endured “multiple significant areas of bruising on her body and multiple impacts to her head.”

Oluwafemi’s trial is scheduled for three weeks.

He is free on bail pending a resolution to the case.