Warning: The top story in this post describes the injuries of a deceased infant.
1. Baby boy dies with severe bruising and blood in his nappy.
A baby boy who died with horrific injuries may have been shaken to death and the victim of other crimes, a coroner has found.
Michael Smedley was just five months old when he died of a ‘traumatic head injury’ in Alice Springs in 2012 while in the care of his 16-year-old mother’s friends, the Daily Mail reports.
A coroner has found he died with severe bruising, anal injuries and blood in his nappy as well as injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
Northern Territory Coroner Greg Cavanagh referred the case back to police, who have confirmed an investigation has recommended, but charges have not been laid.
Tamara Cole and her son had been living with her boyfriend, Oliver Deighton, who was alone with the infant in the hours before he became unconscious in July, 2012.
When Ms Cole came to collect her son to take him to daycare the five-month-old was limp and not breathing.
Ms Cole and paramedics performed CPR but Michael was pronounced dead that afternoon.
Doctors were suspicious about the ‘sinister’ bruising on Michael’s body and one paediatrician said he had been ‘shaken vigorously’. He also had damage to his anus and semen detected there, along with blood on his nappy.
Medical experts have dismissed Mr Deighton’s claim that Michael had wriggled off a change table as being unable to have caused his 26 bruises.
The coroner referred the matter to the NT Commissioner of Police and Director of Public Prosecutions believing a crime had been committed.
Top Comments
{*RIP Baby Michael Smedley*}Hope they are prosecuted to the
full extent of the law and don't put any more babies on this earth
to suffer the same fate.
That poor darling baby. Stories like this break your heart.
What on earth is happening in our society that this seems to be, not a one off rare event, but an all too frequent occurance.
Something wrong here, something bad; this should not be happening.
Unfortunately this has always happened. History has thousands of heart breaking stories like this one. It's not new and it's not unique to our society. Abuse of children has always and (unfortunately) will always happen. Fighting it is a war that never ends.
It definitely shouldn't be happening at all - but let's not pretend it's new and/or more common than ever (because it's not, not even statistically.)