Soul Turany (centre) died from a non-accidental head injury when he was three months old in 2014. His mother Storme Turany and her then-boyfriend Tony Farmer were the only people at the house at the time the baby was injured. A coroner is now holding an inquest into the death. Photos / Pool / Chris Skelton/Stuff
An international brain injury expert has told a coroner he believes Christchurch newborn Soul Turany died from “abusive head trauma” in 2014.
He said the blunt force impact inflicted on the 3-month-old would have taken “a level of force above and beyond what a competent adult would think is acceptable handling of a baby of this age”.
Soul was fatally injured - the result of “a hard impact” - at a house in Burnham on August 30, 2014.
Emergency services were called, and Soul was flown to Christchurch Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in a critical condition.
His injuries were not survivable, and he was taken off life support just after 3am the following day.
Police launched a homicide investigation, stating Soul’s injuries were non-accidental.
The only people at the house when Soul was hurt were his mother Storme Turany and her then-partner Tony Farmer.
They split up soon after the little boy died.
Nobody has ever been charged over the infant’s death, though police named Turany and Farmer as persons of interest in the months after.
An inquest is now being held to establish the circumstances.
Over the next two weeks, Coroner Ian Telford will hear extensive evidence from Turany and Farmer, and a number of doctors and police involved with Soul’s death and the criminal investigation.
Today, Scottish neuropathology expert Dr Colin Smith was called to give his opinion on Soul’s injuries.
The court heard that Smith had reviewed the medical information relating to Soul’s death, including scans and the post-mortem examination report.
“The post-mortem examination described a blunt force impact head injury with a skull fracture and ... traumatic injury.
“I’m an expert in neuropathology, and that is the examination of the brain, and sometimes the spinal cord post-mortem, to try and understand how changes to the brain may have contributed to the cause of death.
“Currently, and for quite some time now, New Zealand has not had a specialist neuropathologist so I was asked.”
Smith said after an exhaustive review of the information, the cause of Soul’s death was clear to him.
“This infant has clearly suffered a blunt force impact head injury ... This clearly represents an unequivocal head injury, and the differential diagnosis lies between accidental or abusive head trauma ... and I think that second scenario is just not a feasible scenario.
“Given the age of this infant, abusive head trauma has to be considered the working diagnosis, and I’m not aware of a suggestion of an accidental head injury which can account for this pathology.
“So this pattern of pathology seems to be only linked to abusive head trauma, or inflicted head injury.”
Smith was asked if shaking could have caused Soul’s injuries.
“In this case, there has clearly been impact; you don’t get a skull fracture with shaking. It may be a combination of both,” he said.
He estimated Soul could have been injured up to 24 hours before his “collapse”.
In that time, despite his catastrophic injury, he may have appeared normal, continuing to breathe and make crying and grunting noises.
But he would have been “clearly unwell, very quickly”.
“A baby crying does not mean they are lucid,” Smith explained.
“At the time of the episode of trauma, this infant would have been in respiratory arrest.”
Smith was asked his opinion of what Soul’s head may have struck, or been struck with, to cause the fatal injury - and the level of force that would have been needed.
“Level of force is always challenging,” he said.
“To fracture the skull is not easy, but it is described in relatively low-level falls, so mum or dad carrying a baby and accidentally dropping the baby, they can get a linear skull fracture, and they’re otherwise fine.
“From falls of one to 1.5m in height, you can get skull fractures - that’s not a huge level of force, but it’s a significant level of force.
“I think the best way to think about this is, babies can be handled quite roughly by siblings, by carers, relatives etc - they are relatively robust, which is why we don’t have paediatric neurosurgical wards full of babies with these type of injuries.
“To get all the [brain injuries Soul suffered] is a level of force ... that is above and beyond what a competent adult would think is acceptable handling of a baby of this age.”
He could not say exactly what object or surface had caused Soul’s fatal injury.
“I would suggest it’s a relatively flat solid surface, but I can’t be definitive about that.”
It was put to Smith that whoever hurt Soul would have been well aware of their actions.
Smith said incidents resulting in fatal injuries like Soul’s “only happen when no one else is looking”.
“The person involved is the only person who knows what happened,” he said.
“I think it’s very difficult to precisely hypothesise what’s going on because no one is obviously going to do this in front of other adults.”
On Monday, Coroner Telford explained that his role was to establish “as far as possible” the cause and circumstances of Soul’s death.
“I don’t sit here as a judge in the classic sense ... it’s not my role to find who was liable or to discipline,” he said.
“It’s to work out what’s happened. Another important function of my role is to make recommendations to help prevent future deaths occurring in similar circumstances.”
Coroner Telford began the inquest by paying tribute to Soul.
“I want to acknowledge and honour the one who is at the centre of everything we’re doing here, and that is, of course, Soul,” he said.
“His life was short, but he was precious. He was a gift to the world for every second of the three months, 22 days that he lived.”
Coroner Telford said he had a “reasonable idea” about the cause of Soul’s death.
However, what has never been established was how Soul was injured.
He said the inquest was a chance to inquire “carefully into that”.
“I cannot shy away from a simple truth: I am Soul’s coroner. My core responsibility is to him, shining a light into the shadows that surrounded his death.”
The inquest continues.
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz