Dad "snaps" and leaves 6-week-old son with permanent brain injury (Derby, England, United Kingdom)

These shaken baby articles are always so nice and charitable. Always a lot of excuses. Poor daddy was "exhausted" don't you know. He "snapped." What a bunch of rubbish. It would be laughable if a young life wasn't irreparably harmed or ended in the process. As is typical in the UK press, this is an UNNAMED DAD. And he gets the typical tap-on-the-wrist sentence. What else is new....

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Shaken-baby-left-brain-damage-father-snapped/article-2086841-detail/article.html

Thursday, April 29, 2010, 07:30
Shaken baby is left with brain damage after father 'snapped'

AN exhausted father snapped and shook his six-week-old crying son – causing permanent brain damage.

The 37-year-old wept in the dock as Derby Crown Court heard how he had shaken the child for three to four seconds after it became inconsolable in the early hours of the morning.

The baby started having fits the following day and, after his parents took him to the former Derby City General Hospital, medics discovered he had suffered a subdural haematoma to the left side of his brain. This is where a large amount of blood collects around the brain and brain membrane. The child continued to have fits for three days but made "a remarkable recovery" and was discharged from hospital two weeks after the incident.

Jeremy Janes, prosecuting, told the court the left side of the child's brain had been "permanently damaged" but that the right side could adapt and take over.

The court heard that the child, who was now 18 months old, was walking and talking and appeared to be "a happy and healthy child".

Mr Janes said: "It's not possible at this stage to give a definite prognosis for the child as he is still very young."

He said that as the boy continued to grow he could develop symptoms, such as behavioural disorders or severe learning difficulties. Mr Janes told the court how the man had worked a 12-hour shift the previous day, before returning home to help with the housework and feed the baby.

He had been due to leave for work for another 12-hour shift that morning. He had felt extremely tired.

Mr Janes said: "The dynamics of the relationship between him and the mother was that he would often come back and carry out duties and make meals and would assist with the feeding."

He said that when the baby was admitted to hospital "he was relatively well, outwardly, although he had a bulging fontanel and a rash to his head".

The man admitted what he had done to a social worker and his family, two months after the incident. He told the police: "I can remember shaking him. I don't remember getting there. I don't know what triggered me. Something just went bang and I stopped because I knew what I was doing was wrong."

Giving the man a 51-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordering him to do 250 hours of unpaid work Recorder Richard Hedley QC said: "This is a tragic case.

"There's no suggestion that before this incident took place, and indeed subsequent to it, you have been nothing other than a loving and caring father to your children. But there is no doubt the result of what you did in shaking your son for a period of no more than perhaps three to four seconds was to cause him really serious harm."

He added: "Those three to four seconds will doubtlessly live with you for the rest of your life."

The Derby man pleaded guilty to child cruelty. The Telegraph cannot name him because of a court order banning identification of the child. The judge said this was needed to protect the child in future.