Man jailed for shaking infant

Stepfather gets 6-1/2 years after infant left blind, quadriplegic

A young Edmonton man has been sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison for violently shaking his infant stepson after the child vomited on him while being playfully tossed into the air.

In November, Russel Archer Robinson pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for the attack on the nine-month-old boy.

The child was left with a severe brain injury and developmental disabilities. He is now a blind quadriplegic who has seizures and cerebral palsy. He must be fed through a tube. While he cannot communicate, he is capable of smiling and laughing.

Court heard that the baby boy is at risk for premature death and will live a life of limitations.

“The prognosis for the victim is grim,” provincial court Judge Janet Dixon wrote in her sentencing decision.

“The degree of harm experienced by this infant is profound. The gravity of the offence before me is of the most serious nature one could contemplate short of a loss of life.”

Court heard that Robinson was in a relationship with the boy’s mother and they moved in together in April 2011.

On July 9, the boy’s grandmother became concerned when she visited the home and noticed the child was pale, unfocused and having seizures.

The boy’s mother said the grandmother was “overreacting” and Robinson said the boy was just “tired.”

Police interviewed Robinson after the boy’s injuries were assessed. At first, he denied any blame and tried to say the mother had injured the child. Then he admitted that days before he’d been tossing the child in the air when the boy vomited on him. Twice, he violently shook the boy sideto-side and then clutched him so tightly the boy’s ribs were fractured.

“The degree of harm experienced by this infant is profound.”

JUDGE JANET DIXON

Robinson also admitted he was angry with the boy’s mother at the time of the attack.

They had just argued and she had taken a ring he had given her off her finger.

“The offender was angry when he was told to care for the victim by the mother and dealt with the victim roughly,” Dixon wrote in her decision.

“He committed this assault out of anger and frustration. The victim was not the true target of the accused’s anger.”

In the week before the attack, the boy’s mother told Robinson he was using too much force when he tossed the child into the air and caught him in a playful manner.

Court heard that Robinson had lived on his own since he moved out of his family home in Vancouver and arrived in Edmonton when he was 15.

At 20, when he met the boy’s mother, he already had one child from a previous marriage that he had left.

After credit for time already served, Robinson has a little less than six years left to serve of his sentence. The Crown prosecutor in the case had argued Robinson should be sentenced to 10 years.