A LAVINGTON mother intoxicated after an AFL grand final party last October had twice dropped her three-month-son to the ground causing a skull fracture, a court heard yesterday.
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Witnesses who gave evidence in Albury Local Court described the child falling from the woman’s left arm and hitting his head.
One witness said the child was accidentally dropped the first time with the mother becoming hysterical, which led to him being dropped a second time.
The child did not make a sound after being dropped initially, but screamed after the second incident and suffered a graze to his nose and non-displaced skull fracture.
The mother, 28, has pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, grievous bodily harm by a negligent act and another charge laid yesterday of unlawfully exposing a child to serious injury.
Magistrate Geoff Hiatt imposed a suppression order on the woman’s identity after an application from her solicitor James Sloan.
Mr Sloan said before the case started there was no dispute about the injuries caused.
But he said the issues were how the injuries were inflicted, whether the mother was reckless or criminally negligent and whether she put the child in danger.
The party was held in Hartley Street at Lavington on October 2 and began about 12.30pm with the host asking the mother to leave about 10.30pm.
It followed an altercation with his girlfriend and the mother was told repeatedly to leave.
The mother was out the front of the house when a woman saw the child fall once, but described it as unintentional and she immediately rang 000 to get assistance from police and an ambulance.
Nearby resident Ray Eldridge, 57, went out the front of his residence after hearing an argument across the road with the mother being told to go home.
Mr Eldridge said she was holding the child with her left arm and bent over a pram when she dropped it.
Mr Eldridge went to assist her because she was hysterical and she dropped the child again.
“She never meant to drop the baby. The baby was dropped by accident,” Mr Eldridge said.
The party was hosted by Stephen Collins who asked the mother to leave.
He said there was alcohol in her pram and the baby fell from her arms the first time on his lawn and then on the roadway.
“She was screaming a lot of things. She was very drunk,” Mr Collins said.
The prosecution case finished yesterday and the hearing has been adjourned until March 9.
Mr Hiatt continued an apprehended violence order taken out by police for the protection of the child who is in care.
