‘Mother may have been unaware of boyfriend abusing her child’

GASPS of shock sounded through the High Court sitting in Pretoria as a judge cleared a mother of all charges relating to the abuse of her 2-year-old daughter by her boyfriend.

The child is being cared for in an institution as she is in a vegetative state.

Judge Nico Coetzee said while the woman may have been a lazy mother, it cannot be said that she allowed her boyfriend to abuse the child.

“She was probably not aware of this,” he said, adding that it was not surprising that the mother could not recall which bruises the child had at the time.

He said the domestic worker mostly took care of the child.

She testified that the woman was a lazy mother who mostly slept and only handled the child when she was hungry.

But the judge said the mother probably did all she could to see to the general well- being of the child.

He said when the child was taken to hospital a few days prior to her falling into a coma, the mother was the one who insisted that a CT scan be done.

“She was a mother who was worried about the well-being of her child,” Judge Coetzee said.

The 37-year-old boyfriend, on the other hand, was an unreliable witness, and the judge convicted him of child abuse.

His evidence that the child was severely injured when she first fell down some stairs on December 15, 2013, was rejected.

A forensic pathologist testified that the injuries suffered by the child were typical of abuse.

These included a fractured pelvis, brain injuries, multiple bruises in different stages of healing, and cracked ribs.

The judge also did not believe the boyfriend’s evidence that the child had suffered the brain injuries when she fell off a washing machine on December 27, 2013. He claimed he had been busy dressing her at the time, and that when he turned away for a moment, the child fell to the ground.

Baby L was taken to hospital on that occasion, and a CT scan done. A doctor, however, sent her home and told the mother to keep an eye on her.

Experts testified that the brain injuries detected three days later when she was again taken to hospital were not consistent with a fall from a washing machine. On that occasion the child suffered injuries to the back of her brain, as opposed to the front part which would have been the case if she had fallen from the washing machine.

Baby L was rushed to hospital on December 30, 2013 when she, according to the boyfriend, suffered a fit.

Judge Coetzee concluded that the boyfriend probably left the child alone in a tub of water while he went out. Some of her injuries were consistent with inhaling water, and she was wet.

Other injuries, such as severe damage to her pancreas, were caused by severe blows meted out by the boyfriend, the court concluded.

Sentencing is on Monday.