Police: Baby's injuries not accidental

File photo / NZ Herald

Police have launched an investigation after finding "significant" non-accidental injuries were inflicted on a 10-week-old Hawkes Bay baby.

The young boy was transferred to Hawke's Bay Regional Hospital early last month after being taken to a local GP by a family member.

Police said his injuries were significant and could not have been received accidentally.

Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Greig said investigators would be speaking to the child's family, who had recently moved to Hawkes Bay from Wellington.

"It's unclear at this point where the child's injuries occurred and our investigation will be looking into how the child received the injuries and when. We are speaking with family members to try and ascertain as many details as possible."

He said police would not specify what the child's injuries were as that was part of the investigation.

The attack happened in the same month that six-month-old baby Ngaruawahia girl died from traumatic brain injury suffered in what police described as a "very violent" incident.

Serenity-Jay Scott-Dinnington died in Starship hospital on April 28 after her life support was switched off.

She had been admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit on April 26 night after suffering injuries that police say were non-accidental.

Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Greene said the post-mortem results showed Serenity died a "very violent" death.

"I would stress at this stage that the post mortem results are only provisional, but they give us some idea as to what sort of injuries she suffered during what was obviously a very violent death."

Two other babies were also admitted to Waikato Hospital last month with non-accidental injuries.

Police said they were not investigating those cases as a complaint had not been laid.

Child, Youth and Family received 124,921 child abuse complaints last year, compared to 50,488 notifications in 2005, Ministry of Social Development figures show.

- NZ Herald staff