Jailed for breaking baby’s limbs

The father of a two-month-old Timaru baby who punched her in the face, broke her elbow, wrist and knees and fractured her ribs, has been jailed.

The 31-year-old, who has been granted name suppression, said stress and the resentment of having to care for a newborn had led him to assault his daughter.

The man admitted squeezing his daughter until her ribs cracked, forcefully swaddling her and punching her in the face while she was in his care in 2017.

As a result of the abuse, the infant sustained 23 fractures to her ribs, breaks to her right elbow, right wrist, and knees, and a bruise to her left cheek between March 25 and April 18, 2017.

The man was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment when he appeared before Judge Joanna Maze in the Timaru District Court yesterday, having earlier pleaded guilty to a representative charge of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.

Judge Maze said the man attacked his daughter, who was born in February 2017, because he was stressed and ‘‘resentful of the responsibility’’, and his communication with the child’s mother was ‘‘not good’’.

But he had failed to ‘‘express deep and genuine remorse’’ for the injuries he inflicted when interviewed for a pre-sentence report, the judge said.

‘‘The pre-sentence report is not a particularly positive document. You have been trying to access funds to provide a payment for your daughter but as there has been no payment, I cannot give a discount.’’

The defendant was at ‘‘moderate risk’’ of alcohol abuse and had other addiction problems, the judge said.

Crown prosecutor Helen Bennett, in a police summary of facts to the court, said that on one occasion the defendant wrapped both hands around the infant’s torso and squeezed with enough force to fracture her ribs. On another, he forcibly straightened her legs against a wooden floor in his efforts to swaddle.

A third occasion saw him punch her in the face.

‘‘[She] reacted to this by crying and the defendant suspected she was injured.’’

The defendant’s explanation was ‘‘he was under a lot of stress, at the end of his tether, and just snapped’’, Bennett said.

‘‘The injuries received by [her] during these assaults were not treated at the time.’’

Only during a routine health check on April 18 did the injuries come to light. A nurse spotted four bruises and a graze on the baby’s head and referred her to Timaru Hospital for a paediatric examination.

‘‘Some [of the injuries] were in the process of healing, indicating they were in excess of 10 days old. Others were more recent, indicating they had occurred within the previous 10 days,’’ Bennett said.

Judge Maze said the girl had since been taken into care.

The defendant admitted the facts before Judge Allan Roberts in April 2019, when he was issued a first strike under the three strikes law.

On one occasion he punched his baby in the face. She reacted to this by crying and the defendant suspected she was injured. Police summary of facts