Stepfather caused girl’s severe brain injury, prosecution alleges

Crown says doctors found many bruises

The near-deadly traumatic brain injury suffered by a little Calgary girl was at the hands of her stepfather, a prosecutor alleged Monday.

In her opening address in the aggravated assault trial of Tyler Eugene Laberge, Crown lawyer Pam Mccluskey said the four-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital on the evening of March 11, 2018.

Mccluskey told provincial court Judge Terry Semenuk the girl was left in Laberge’s sole care earlier that day.

“In the afternoon ... she was left in the care of her de facto stepfather, the accused, and by that evening she was in hospital in danger of dying,” Mccluskey said, at the beginning of a scheduled two-week trial.

“(Her) most urgent injury was to her brain,” the prosecutor said.

“She was profoundly unconscious and she had a subdural hematoma. Her brain was swelling.”

The child was rushed from Rockyview General Hospital, where she was initially taken, to the Alberta Children’s Hospital, where she underwent surgery.

“That surgery saved (her) life, but she will suffer the results of that brain damage for the rest of her life,” Mccluskey said.

Laberge, 33, is charged with aggravated assault.

The prosecutor told Semenuk that while doctors couldn’t specifically say she was struck in the head multiple times, it is the Crown’s theory there was more than one blow. The prosecutor also said doctors found bruising on much of the child’s body.

“I don’t think that any of the experts can say with any certainty how many impacts caused this brain injury,” Mccluskey said.

“The Crown’s theory is that there are repeated impacts on that child. One, or more, caused that brain injury.”

She said based on the totality of the evidence the judge should be able to determine the girl’s head was struck more than once.

“I think the court can draw the inference that there was more than one impact to the head,” she said.

Laberge, who was charged more than 10 months after the girl was hospitalized, is free on bail pending the outcome of the trial.