Northland mother found guilty of causing brain damage to 4-month-old son

A Northland mother has been found guilty of causing injuries to her 4-month-old son.

WARNING: This article details child abuse and may be upsetting to some readers.

A 4-month-old suffered brain damage prosecutors say could only have occurred if he was violently shaken or thrown.

And it was alleged the child’s mother was the person who had done it.

Now the 29-year-old, who denied the allegation, insisting she only tried to wake the baby with a simple shake,has been convicted for what the Crown says was abuse.

The woman, who can not be named to protect the identity of the child, was on trial in the Whangārei District Court last week on one charge of wounding with reckless disregard following an incident in 2019.

Evidence heard at trial detailed how the woman and her husband arrived at the Bay of Islands hospital with the baby on July 1, 2019, reporting he had gone limp and been resuscitated by CPR performed by his mother.

After being flown to Starship hospital in Auckland and following extensive tests, it was revealed the child had suffered a brain bleed, torn veins and hypoxic brain damage only sustainable from blunt force trauma.

The trial heard that over the following year, police investigated the child’s injuries, and the mother gave three police interviews.

In one interview, she said the baby had fallen out of a bouncer the day before he became unresponsive and she had found him face down on the floor.

She told police she believed the baby had pushed his way backwards. But as he was still the size of a six-week-old, Detective Sergeant Natalie Syddall believed this was physically impossible.

The trial was heard in the Whangārei District Court.

The woman told police that the following day, after her husband left for work, she had fed the baby and he went stiff in her arms, and his eyes began to close slowly.

She said she shook the boy non-violently to wake him and then performed CPR.

The woman told Syddall she did not initially reveal to doctors or the police what had happened as she was afraid of her husband.

At trial, defence lawyer Jarred Scott told the jury the woman was experiencing significant psychological difficulties, PTSD and cultural pressures.

Scott said the real issue of the case was recklessness and her state of mind at the time.

“When [the baby] comes unresponsive, she’s at that point where she’s had it,” he submitted.

“Recklessness at law requires a conscious appreciation for the risk.”

The woman gave birth to their first child in 2017, a premature baby with kidney problems that needed round-the-clock oxygen and medication.

She claimed her husband was drunk most weekends and did not like to hear the baby crying, which put significant strain on her to keep the child quiet.

One day, while holding the crying baby, she said his body went stiff and he began closing his eyes.

By the time they got the baby to the hospital, it was dead.

She explained that, due to cultural beliefs, she was not permitted to attend his burial or visit the graveyard. While grappling with her grief, her husband insisted on having another child.

That baby was stillborn.

Almost immediately, she became pregnant again and gave birth to her son at the centre of the wounding case. He had the same kidney syndrome as her deceased son, she said.

“I was not ready for another baby, I was still grieving. I just needed time on my own,” she said

He was born four months premature, and on the day he suffered injuries was about the size of a 6-week-old.

The mother said given what she had experienced with her deceased son, she panicked when the younger boy went limp.

Crown lawyer Deb Davies said nurses from the neo intensive care unit reported the baby was the noisiest, unsettled baby on the ward and put to the mother, it was his crying that frustrated her.

The mother said that despite the constant crying, she always did everything she could to make him stop.

“We just don’t see haemorrhages in kids normally that don’t walk around. The most likely explanation is an abusive situation,” Davies said to the woman.

Davies put to her that she was exhausted, stressed and had shaken the baby before he reportedly closed his eyes and went stiff.

“You did get angry that morning on the 1st of July. So angry you didn’t care if you hurt him. You shook him, threw him or slammed his head,” Davies said.

“I did not [shake] him, throw him or slam his head. I only tried to wake him up. I did not shake him violently,” she said.

Ultimately, the jury found found the woman guilty.

She will be sentenced in May before Judge Gene Tomlinson.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.