Mother jailed for maiming her baby

By staff reporters and NZPA
Tracey Sutherland's baby is unable to walk, sit up or eat unless it's through a tube.
He wears a brace to strengthen his legs and straighten his spine. He is potentially blind, deaf and epileptic.
And his eyes - they simply have a glazed look.
That's the damage the Tauranga mother inflicted on her newborn baby - and this is her first week of a six-year jail term for child abuse.
Sutherland, 27, was sentenced in the High Court at Rotorua after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent. She had also pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting a child, for which she was sentenced to three months' jail, to be served concurrently.
The sentencing coincides with the release of a Save The Children study, which unveils an alarming rate of physical punishment being used in Kiwi families. More than 90 per cent of the 80 children surveyed reported being smacked, or believed children were smacked.
Some spoke of being hit around the face with implements as the first line of discipline. Others said parents would feel remorse later on and offer "treats" as compensation. The study found using physical force as punishment was largely ineffective.
In sentencing Sutherland, Justice Paul Heath said the baby couldn't have come "any closer to death".
"For all intents and purposes, the baby is in a vegetative state with no realistic prognosis of a successful recovery."
Sutherland's baby was born premature on April 29, 2004, after 31 weeks gestation and weighing 2290gm. The baby remained in hospital until June 7 when Sutherland and her de facto partner took him home.
Sutherland became increasingly exhausted and stressed when the baby's feeding became more erratic because of a minor illness and blocked nose, Justice Heath said.
The first assault occurred on the night of June 12.
"The injuries that were inflicted that evening occurred when you gripped the baby's head hard and pushed the bottle in with excessive force in order to get the baby to feed."
The second and more serious assault occurred three days later and fractured the baby's skull causing severe head injury, the judge said.
Sutherland's partner, who cannot be named because of suppression orders, still loves the Tauranga mother and is standing by her. He hopes to have a prison wedding in four month's time.
The man said he took Sutherland under his wing while she was battling to give up drugs and alcohol and she fell pregnant.
"She loved her children and still does," the man maintained. Sutherland initially blamed the physical abuse on the man's three children - who were living with them at the time - but was remorseful now, he said.
The man was frank when speaking about the toddler's condition.
"I'll be honest, he's very slow, but he's not as damaged as they make out. He is damaged but he does react, he turns and looks at you and things like that. He has a cheeky grin, he doesn't do it very often."
He said Sutherland had endured a tough life and the physical abuse of their son was the end result of that.
When he returned from work the day Sutherland had fractured the child's skull, the boy was "white and cold". The baby was fast-tracked to Starship Hospital, where he "nearly died - he was so close to death it wasn't funny".
Now the severely disabled 18-month-old just stares with glazed eyes.
"Just in his eyes, they have that glazed stare, that distant look," the man said.
The baby's carers have to do a lot of physical rehabilitation on the toddler, massaging and moving his arms and legs.
Child Youth and Family had already taken two of Sutherland's children from a previous relationship away from her, prior to the assault of the baby. A report to CYF said the two-year-old boy weighed just 8kg, was losing his hair and could not smile, walk, or talk. His four-year-old sister was so famished she would eat toothpaste from the tube.
Sutherland regarded attempts by Child, Youth and Family to help her "almost confrontational" because she was concerned they would take her baby away from her.
She had suffered a sad upbringing herself, the report said. Her own home life was dysfunctional, leading her to stray into the use of drugs and causing difficulties with her own children, who were later taken into care.
Sutherland initially denied beating her baby, pleading not guilty at the opening of her High Court trial in Rotorua in August and telling the jury her son had been harmed by others, possibly his three step-siblings.
Four days into the week-long trial, she changed her plea.
Justice Heath said Sutherland's late guilty plea and attempt to blame others tempered the fact she had accepted responsibility for her actions.
"It is difficult to imagine a more serious allegation against a member of your family when you knew full well what had happened and knew that you had caused it."
Justice Heath urged Sutherland to deal with her problems while in prison.
General manager Gordon McFadyen, from the Commissioner for Children's office, said the violent abuse of children in the community had reached severe proportions.