Assault accused father has ‘no idea’ how son was injured, court hears

A Rayton man on Monday told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria he had no idea how his two-month-old baby boy had sustained the fractured skull and brain bleeds, which permanently disabled him.

The 28-year-old man and his former girlfriend, 26, have pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to murder and severely assaulting their baby son and his twin sister.

The state alleges the couple had between October and December 2012 intentionally and repeatedly assaulted the twins, who were born prematurely.

The little boy was rushed to hospital in the early hours of Christmas Day in 2012, after losing consciousness and struggling to breathe and had to receive surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain.

The boy had numerous bruises, a severe brain injury and a skull fracture.

His baby sister had four fractured ribs and an infection in one of her legs which had already started to heal.

Their grandfather told the court the little boy could still not walk, sit or talk, could not use the right side of his body and battled to swallow, while his twin sister was developing normally.

A neurosurgeon earlier testified that the boy’s brain bleeds and fractured skull had been caused by a blunt force injury sustained hours before he was taken to hospital.

The father insisted that his baby son had shown no signs of injuries and as far as he knew nothing had happened to him until the baby suddenly stopped breathing while drinking from his bottle.

He used a baby doll to demonstrate how he had gripped the baby and said the blue marks behind his son’s ears and on his buttocks might have been caused when he held the child against him, jumped up and ran to his father’s bedroom when he realised the baby had stopped breathing.

He could also not explain his daughter’s injuries.

He denied his former girlfriend’s claims that he had been abusive and had assaulted her, insisting that it was she who had abused him.

The trial continues.

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