Medical experts give opinions in Whangārei baby manslaughter trial

Rawiri Sergeant is on trial for manslaughter in the High Court at Whangārei. Photo / NZME

WARNING: This article discusses medical evidence about a child which may be disturbing.

Two medical experts have said it is unlikely, but not impossible, that the traumatic brain injury that caused the death of a 5-week-old baby was from the explanation the father gave police.

“It’s important to recognise that we have a healthy infant who almost immediately dies. This is a catastrophic injury,” a neuropathologist told a jury in a manslaughter case being heard in the High Court at Whangārei.

Rawiri Sergeant, 20, is facing trial for manslaughter after his son, O’Shea Tuhoe Sergeant, died on November 19, 2021.

Emergency services were called to an address in Ruakākā where Sergeant – then 18 years old – and his partner, Jazmyne Thacker, had been living with their newborn and Sergeant’s parents.

The Crown alleges Sergeant smoked cannabis three times over the night of November 18 and early hours of November 19 and that contributed to his inability to care for O’Shea.

The court heard Sergeant was burping his son on his knee about 4 am when his head jerked backwards and then forwards and, as he fell forward, Sergeant’s knee allegedly came up and connected with the left side of O’Shea’s head.

He put him back to bed beside him and, when Thacker checked on them at 6 am, they were both asleep and she did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

According to the the Crown, Sergeant prepared a bottle about 9am and attempted to feed O’Shea but his son did not latch on to the bottle and Sergeant noticed his limbs were floppy and he was not responding.

Holding O’Shea at chest height, Sergeant allegedly dropped the baby on the floor. When he checked whether the baby had a heartbeat he noticed blood coming from his nose and began CPR.

After splashing the baby’s face with water and wiping his nose, he allegedly dropped the baby again from chest height.

Multiple witnesses have given evidence this week including Thacker, two midwives and emergency responders who were first on the scene.

On Thursday, a forensic pathologist for the Auckland District Health Board, Charles Glen, gave evidence about the autopsy he conducted on the child two days after his death.

Justice Christine Gordon is overseeing the High Court trial scheduled for three weeks. Photo / Dean Purcell

Glen said what stood out to him from his first visual of O’Shea was several injuries on the outside of his body including an eight cm by five cm bruise to the left side of his forehead, a smaller bruise to the left upper eyelid and a fractured clavicle.

Glen said the smaller bruise could be related to the impact of the larger bruising but red marks along the left side of the neck and shoulder could have been from a separate impact.

“If you have a fall on to an irregular surface you can come up with a situation that could come up with both of those. There could be two separate events and that’s more likely in my experience, but it could also be from one,” Glen said.

Glen confirmed O’Shea had subdural haemorrhaging, a subarachnoid haemorrhage, a swollen brain and bleeding in the optic nerves.

“From your analysis of his explanation that he puts forward about baby being on his knee and tipping forward ... are we going to have injuries like this?” Crown prosecutor Geraldine Kelly asked.

Glen said: “We would not expect this amount of brain injuries from a child doing that with its own weight moving his head forward and going down. I don’t think it’s possible to get a traumatic brain injury from that level of force. There’s probably more force involved than that.”

When asked if a knee coming up connecting with the child’s head could cause the injury he responded: “Absolutely.”

“If you have a situation with a knee coming up and a hand coming down, there could be enough force to cause these injuries,” Glen said.

Glen said it was possible the right clavicle fracture could have occurred when pressure was being applied to the left side of his body given there was no co-relating bruise alongside the fracture.

Neuropathologist Professor Colin Smith gave evidence from the United Kingdom after viewing photos, studying a sample of brain tissue and confirming in a report that O’Shea had suffered subdural bleeding to the brain and spinal cord.

Smith said he was given three possible scenarios for the brain injury: someone had rolled on O’Shea while he was sleeping; he had been dropped; or he had been tipped forward towards a knee.

Smith said it was not possible any of those explanations could have caused the injuries presented.

“It’s important to recognise that we have a healthy infant who almost immediately dies. This is a catastrophic injury,” Smith said

“We do not see this catastrophic injury sustained in that setting. It would need to be an extraordinarily forceful blow, not just an accidental bump of the knee.

“There’s nothing to suggest that type of scenario with a relatively low-level force causing this catastrophic injury so I exclude that as a possible cause,” Smith told the Crown in evidence.

Under cross-examination Smith told Fairley it was the first time he had heard the scenario of the knee coming up to connect with the baby’s head as he was going down, and agreed that possibility could not be excluded.

“Yes, you could knee someone in the head but I am not convinced the force is sufficient if he is sitting on a carer’s knee and the knee comes up. I am struggling to see that.

“I don’t know if this scenario is likely to cause that. My feeling is unlikely but I cannot definitely say,” Smith concluded.

The trial, which is being heard by Justice Christine Gordon and a jury of five men and seven women, has been adjourned until Monday.

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.