Pretoria - The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, has concluded hearing evidence in the case in which a baby girl was allegedly brutally abused by her parents.
The case was postponed to August 31, when Judge Hennie de Vos will listen to arguments from both the prosecution and the defence regarding judgment.
The judge requested both parties to, in the meantime, hand written submissions to him regarding whether the 22-year-old mother and 24-year-old father should be convicted on an array of charges.
The now former couple pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, and child neglect.
Both vehemently denied, while giving evidence, that they had harmed the child, dubbed Baby T in court, as she may not be identified.
While neither of them directly pointed fingers at the other harming the baby, both were at great pains to compile their own timelines as to when who took care of Baby T. This is especially important in referring to the dates directly prior to when the baby was admitted to hospital on two occasions.
Baby T was admitted to the Eugene Marais Hospital for the first time in April last year, when she was two months old. Her parents rushed her to hospital as she could not breathe and had turned blue.
X-rays showed numerous old and new fractures to ribs on both sides of her body. The police were alerted and the baby was released in the care of her maternal grandmother. The parents, however, fetched the baby after a few days.
She again landed in hospital three months later at the age of five months. This time doctors who treated her said she was in a terrible state, and they feared for her life.
The child was thin, dehydrated and struggled to breathe. And this time X-rays and CT scans showed about 31 fractures across her body, including her collarbone and upper leg. Some were new and some were old fractures. The child also had a soft tissue injury to her neck and a bruise on her chin.
Several doctors testified about the child's condition and told the court that it was not easy to break the bones of an infant, as they are quite elastic. They all agreed that severe force must have been applied for the bones to have been broken.
A family member in whose care the child is now, testified that while she did not see them hit the child, the mother did swing the child from side to side with some force when she cried.
She explained that Baby T, who was born at 31 weeks, cried often and suffered from colic, which made her a difficult baby at times.
The mother said she never abused her child and she would not have allowed anyone else to hurt her baby. While she could not explain the fractures and injuries, she said the child’s dehydration and weight loss had to have been due to the fact that she had an upset stomach.
The father also denied any wrongdoing and, during his evidence, tried to distance himself as far as possible from looking after the baby.
According to him, the mother had refused to allow him to take care of Baby T on his own.
Both parents are out on bail, with one of the conditions being that they may not contact the baby.
Pretoria News