Pretoria - The parents of the infant only identified as Baby T asked the court to acquit them on charges of attempted murder, child abuse and neglect, as there is no evidence of either one of them ever lifting a hand to the baby.
The State, on the other hand, argued before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that both are guilty, as the baby could not injure herself and she was in their care.
By the time little Baby T was five months-old, she had already suffered 31 fractures, she was thin, dehydrated and on the brink of death - all because her parents had assaulted her and did not care for her. She was in fact a broken baby, prosecutor Cornelia Harmzen argued.
The mother, 22 and the child’s father, 24, pleaded not guilty and said they had no idea how their baby suffered all the fractures.
Baby T was in hospital for the first time when she was two months-old, with nearly all her ribs - on both sides of her body - broken. Some ribs were even broken in two more places and they were all in different stages of healing.
By the time she was five months and landed back in hospital, she totalled 31 fractures in different stages of healing.
According to the time frame in which the injuries had occurred and the condition she was in when she was taken to hospital on the second occasion, she must have been left crying for at least four days in her bed from hunger and pain, Harmzen told Judge Hennie de Vos.
Baby T was born on February 1 last year and while she spent a few days in an incubator as she was tiny and premature, she was healthy when she was discharged.
But when she was admitted to the Eugene Marais Hospital on April 3 last year as she could not breath, most of her ribs were broken.
The police arrested the couple at the time, but only the young father appeared in court and both parents were out on bail.
For unknown reasons the baby was placed back with them until she was admitted in a critical state on July 10 last year. She has since been placed in the care of a family member, while the parents were again charged.
While they could not dispute the injuries, the gist of the parents, who had broken-up their relationship in the meantime, were “not me.”
Neither of them accused the other or could explain who had done this to their baby.
Judge De Vos voiced his concern about the fact that after the baby ended up in hospital twice and even after their arrest, the parents did not question each other about what had happened, or tried to find out who had hurt their baby.
“If something like this happens to your baby, you surely ask each other how the baby got hurt,” the judge said.
Harmzen responded that this was because they knew that both of them were guilty. “This is a case where the pot refused to call the kettle black because both assaulted the baby,” she said.
She added that it is impossible to have so many fractures, as well as a bruise to the face and a soft tissue injury to her neck, without the parents noticing it.
According to the prosecution the parents simply did not care for their baby. They left her crying, injured and hungry as she did not fit into their lifestyle, she said.
Judgment will be delivered on October 19.
Pretoria News