A GRIFFITH man who inflicted what a District Court judge described as “a sad series of injuries to his unfortunate baby daughter” has been jailed for six years.
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Judge David Freeman said when sentencing the man, 33, in the District Court in Albury yesterday he had shown no true remorse for the injuries on the young child which included a cardiac arrest.
“The victim suffered great pain and suffering. It is a gross breach of trust by the offender,” Judge Freeman said.
He said the victim was vulnerable and stern punishment should be imposed on drunk people who abused a child.
The man, who cannot be named, was sentenced to varying partially-cumulative jail terms on four counts of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.
He has been in custody with bail refused since November 1 last year and becomes eligible for release on October 31, 2018.
The nine-month-old girl suffered the cardiac arrest on September 23 last year which was caused by blunt force trauma from possibly a punch.
The infant was limp and had stopped breathing when her father phoned an ambulance about 4.30pm and the child was blue when officers arrived.
Emergency treatment with CPR was administered in a frantic effort to save her.
She had no pulse, was rushed to the Griffith Base Hospital, where resuscitation efforts continued for 30 minutes until her heart rhythm returned to normal.
Judge Freeman said there were changes to the child’s brain caused by a lack of oxygen.
“The extent of her brain injury is presently unknown,” he said.
The father gave police two different versions of what happened to the baby, claiming she had vomited after having food and stopped breathing.
But thorough investigations by medical staff after she was transferred to the Sydney Children’s Hospital intensive care unit revealed horrendous abuse had been inflicted on her.
She had previously suffered 23 separate rib fractures, a fractured skull and a fractured hand.
A doctor believed the rib fractures had been caused by blunt force trauma or encirclement of the chest with squeezing, causing forceful compression of the chest wall on multiple occasions.
Police set up electronically recorded surveillance with telephone intercepts of conversations between the man and his partner in October.
In late September, he had been interviewed by detectives and denied assaulting his daughter.
But on November 1, police attached to the State Crime Command child abuse squad went to the family’s home and advised the father of their covert surveillance.
He was arrested but in an electronic interview he said throughout: “No comment.”
