Man jailed for attacks on 4-month baby

An Auckland father who admitted bashing his newborn baby repeatedly for the first four months of her life — causing 14 broken bones — has been jailed for more than four years.

And a judge has dismissed the man’s claims his own abuse in childhood caused him to lash out.

The man was sentenced to four years and two months in prison when he appeared in the Manukau District Court in May.

He cannot legally be named as his daughter, who survived the horrific attacks, has statutory name suppression. His partner was also charged, but the case against her was withdrawn after the man pleaded guilty.

Judge David Harvey described the repeated abuse of the child as

“very serious”. “The offending involved injury to the head . . . and there can be no doubt that a little girl of (your daughter’s) age was particularly vulnerable and you were in a position where you had the care of the child and you were obliged to look after the child, provide for the child’s necessities and not to harm the child in any way, shape or from,” he said.

“A child is defenceless . . . and I cannot overlook the extensive injuries this child suffered in this case.”

In February 2018, the baby’s mother took her to a medical centre in South Auckland. The infant had a swollen right elbow and an X-ray detected a fracture.

She was transported to Middlemore Hospital and another X-ray showed 14 fractures.

Each was caused at a different time and some were healing.

The 4-month-old had skull fractures on both sides of her head; fractures to her sixth, eighth and eleventh right ribs and third, fourth and fifth left ribs; fractures on both sides of her femur and tibia and one to her fibula. She also had breaks in both arms.

The paediatrician who treated the child said her fractures were “classically associated with nonaccidental injury”.

Police said based on the medical evidence, the injuries were caused by the baby’s father, using “a significant degree of force”.

They were the result of the man “violently squeezing”, “violently shaking” and hitting her head “on both sides” with a “hard object”.

The man was charged after three police interviews during which his explanation of the child’s injuries changed. After initially pleading not guilty and spending two years before the courts, the man admitted the violent offending earlier this year.

He was convicted on a charge of causing the girl grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.

The man sought a reduced sentence because he came from a broken home and suffered abuse between the age of 5 and 12. But Judge Harvey rejected that. Judge Harvey also said there seemed to be “feeling” that the “mere provision” of a cultural report which suggested “some sort of social deprivation” automatically justified “some kind of reduction in sentence”.

“I do not hold to that,” he told the man. “I am prepared to allow a discount of 15 per cent for the guilty pleas.”