"They've pissed me off, they've both gone crazy, I'm going to throw [the baby] into a wall soon.”

WARNING: This post deals with child abuse and shaken baby. it may be distressing for some readers.

There is a two-year old boy out there who needs round-the -clock care.

He has the mental age of a three-month old baby and cannot sit up unaided.

Damage to his eyes means that he can only make out light and dark.

He has no hopes of a normal life. None at all.

But he wasn’t born this way. Up until the age of 11 weeks he was a normal healthy baby boy. He had given his first smile and could hold up his head. He had begun to coo and laugh.

But this little boy will laugh no more.

He is damaged beyond repair and all because his mother attacked him, and shook him until his eyes bled.

His own mother destroyed his life.

But some form of justice has now been served, with his mother, 27-year-old Renata Sode, jailed for three years.

The case in the UK shocked many with the mother’s violence towards a newborn baby, but it also reflected once again how crucial it is that new mothers get support when they felt overwhelmed.

The court heard that Renata Sode was struggling to cope with two children on her own. Her husband worked long hours and she had not just her 11-week-old baby but a toddler as well. She was from Lithuania and had no family in the UK.

Texts sent to her husband in the days before the attack showed that she was getting increasingly angry and frustrated with the two children and was struggling to cope.

At one point she begged her husband Mindaugas Sodys to come home from work where he was a car sprayer reports ITV.

She sent him an SMS which read “I’m going to smash [the toddler] in to pieces, she pisses me off’.”

And then another ”They’ve pissed me off, they’ve both gone crazy, I’m going to throw [the baby] into a wall soon.”

And so she shook her three-month old son.

She attacked him and shook him so hard he had a bleeding brain, eyes and also bruising on his torso.

She shook him until there was little brain activity left inside his tiny delicate skull.

Renata then waited for her husband to come home and he tried to perform CPR to revive his infant son.

Renata used the internet on her phone to see if she could right her actions, evidence presented to the court showed she goggled ‘baby in coma’, ‘baby is pale’ and ‘baby having difficulty breathing’.

Twelve hours later they took the baby to hospital.

Doctors at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Essex, first believed the baby might be suffering from a viral infection. The little boy was described as ‘grunting’ as he tried to fill its lungs.

But their suspicions were soon raised.

The court heard his fontanelle, the soft area of a baby’s skull, was raised and swollen, indicating bleeding of the brain; he was soon transferred to a paediatric intensive care unit where he was diagnosed with shaken baby.

In defending her client, David Hislop defence lawyer said, “We may never know exactly how this baby suffered these injuries, but by her pleas the defendant accepts that she’s to be sentenced as the perpetrator of his injuries.”

He said that she was just 24-year old at the time of the incident. “ She had no support in this country other than her husband, and her husband, although supportive, worked extremely long hours.” Reports ITV.

“There had been a call earlier in the evening asking the husband to come back and a text saying ‘both are f****** screaming, I’m going to hit [the baby] into a wall’.

How long had the defendant been awake and how much sleep had she got the day before?”

But the judge found that lack of sleep was no excuse, lack of support was not a reasonable defence for what she did to her newborn son.

In sentencing her to three-years jail the judge said, “You’ve done two terrible things, you shook this baby causing injuries and having done so you failed to seek medical help.

You knew the cause and effect but I have reached the conclusion you made the calculated decision not to call an ambulance – this was due to the fact the baby had stopped breathing and your husband had performed some form of resuscitation.

Even after that resuscitation was done the breathing was still not right and you knew it, however frustrated you were at the time of the initial assault you thereafter had many, many hours to reflect on the consequences of what you had done.”

Renata Sode now has three-years in jail to reflect on the life of difficulties which stretch before her now-two year old son.

If you are struggling and need help there is help out there

Contact:

The Gidget Foundation 

PANDA (Post and Antenatal Depression Association)  on 1300 726 306

Or Lifeline on 13 11 14