A baby was rescued by police officers after being found unconscious, laid face down looking like a ‘doll’. Kelly Nelis, 40, confessed to child cruelty after locking herself in a room with the child and shouting ‘shut up’, ‘die’ and ‘f*** off’.
Shouting, banging and crashing could be heard as Nelis ripped a TV off the wall. It remains unclear as to how exactly the child became injured, however, Nelis accepted ‘full responsibility’ for inflicting the injuries.
This week a court heard that the baby could have died but was saved by quick-thinking police. A judge commended the actions of the officers who attended the scene.
“Putting it starkly, they saved the baby’s life,” prosecutor Bob Elias said at Manchester Crown Court. A judge said that Nelis had avoided jail by the ‘narrowest of margins’.
Prior to the incident, Nelis had spent the evening drinking vodka and Fanta at a house in east Manchester. She had been ‘verbally abusive’ and had created a ‘bad atmosphere’, Mr Elias said.
Later some people left ‘in part at least’ due to her behaviour, the court heard. In the early hours, a witness was woken up by the sound of ‘screaming and smashing’, report Manchester Evening News.
They saw Nelis, who was ‘intoxicated’, coming up the stairs holding the baby in her arms and screaming at it. As she reached the top of the stairs, the witness tried to take the baby off Nelis and a ‘tug of war’ broke out.
Nelis, who was still ‘screaming’, then locked herself in a room. She smashed a TV from a wall and could hear crashing and banging.
Nelis was heard to shout ‘I can’t deal with this anymore’, ‘shut up’, ‘I can’t cope’, ‘die’, ‘f*** off’ and ‘I’ve had enough’. The baby could be heard screaming one minute, then silent the next, Mr Elias said.
Police were called and officers found the baby unresponsive, lay face down. Officers said the baby looked like a ‘doll’ and had a ‘porcelain like’ appearance.
One ‘revived’ the child and saved its life. The baby was rushed to hospital and spent a time in the high dependency unit, suffering bruising to their face, and a collection of fluid within the brain.
However the child has since made a full recovery. A doctor said she was ‘certain’ that if the police had not arrived and acted as they did, the baby would not have survived.
Prosecutors said there was no direct evidence of how the baby suffered the injuries, but that Nelis accepts ‘full responsibility’ for inflicting them. She accepted using ‘inappropriate handling’ of the child.
Defending, Rachel White said Nelis is genuinely remorseful and ‘completely disgusted’ with her actions. Nelis ‘struggles to comprehend’ how it happened, and ‘struggles to cope with the magnitude’ of it, Ms White said.
“She accepts these are very serious matters with serious consequences,” the barrister said. Ms White argued that jailing Nelis, who suffers from mental health problems and agoraphobia, would be ‘counter productive’.
“Custody in these circumstances would only exacerbate her conditions and therefore be counter productive to the good progress she has made,” adding that the public interest would be served by her ‘continued rehabilitation’.
Sentencing, Judge Rachel Smith imposed a two-year suspended prison sentence, suspended for two years. She said: “I am satisfied you were in such a state of intoxication that you were unlikely to have foreseen the consequences of your actions.”
“By the narrowest of margins I have determined it is not the case that appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody.” Nelis pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty.
She must complete 35 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
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