A MAN who shook his 24-week-old baby until it became “lifeless” because he “lost it”, has escaped a jail term at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 21-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child on a date in August 2008 in the city.
Judge Martin Nolan said it was an “irrational reaction” and it was “fortunate the child made a full recovery” before handing down a four-year suspended sentence.
The judge said the man was left in charge of the child and “he could not cope.
Judge Nolan said he accepted the man’s remorse was genuine and accepted it was an irrational response. “At the time he was unsuitable for fatherhood.”
The judge said he had to take into account that since the incident he had become a responsible father who helps mind the child.
He also said the man “had suffered a degree of humiliation as a result of what he had done.”
Det Garda Alan Barry told Tara Burns, prosecuting, the man had been in a relationship with the child’s mother and he was minding him while she was at work.
He had stayed over with the woman the previous night and the baby was left in the bed with the man, the court heard.
The mother rang the man to ask if he wanted anything on her way home and could hear the baby crying.
When the woman got to the house half an hour later, she could see the man crying and the baby “lying lifeless on the couch beside him”.
The baby was limp, pale and his eyes were rolling in the back of his head so the woman called an ambulance, the court heard.
Neighbours had arrived into the house at the time and were instructed by emergency services how to resuscitate the baby, who then started to take short breaths.
The fire brigade arrived and resuscitated the baby before they brought him to Temple Street hospital. The firemen noticed marks on the child, which had not been on him the night before when his mother was bathing him.
In the intensive care unit at the hospital the child became pale and floppy again, the court heard.
The infant had marks on his face and the doctors surmised he had a bite mark on his left cheek.
The marks to the body were unexplained and “the limpness was put down to the baby being choked”. The accused was interviewed and said he was trying to wind the baby but later admitted to have bitten the child on the left cheek because he “lost it”.
He said the child got more upset and he shook the baby. When asked about bruising to the baby’s ears, he said he slapped him on the face in an effort to make him responsive. While the child was in hospital for two weeks he also had a stent put in his head.
The boy has done very well and is now a normal child, Ms Burns told the court. The court heard the accused has no previous convictions and has not come to the attention of the Garda since. Although the man’s relationship with the mother ended, the man still helps take care of the baby.
Giollaiosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, said his client made full admissions over shaking and causing the baby to go to hospital.
“He’s matured very significantly since,” said Mr Ó Lideadha.
He said it was a most horrific incident the man will never forgive himself for and he has done everything he can to make amends.