HE didn't have the opportunity, or a reason, to maim his five-month-old daughter, Newcastle District Court has heard regarding a 29-year-old man accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm on his baby.
The man, known only as GP, will find out Judge Pauline David's verdict in 10 days, on March 15.
The 13-day judge-alone trial has heard it was either mum or dad who injured the baby girl sometime before she was taken to Cessnock hospital on Saturday, December 12, 2020.
She was profoundly unconscious when she arrived in her screaming mother's arms, her flacid limbs moving only in step with her movements.
Her injuries included a fractured skull, old and new fractured ribs, and a complete spinal injury which has left her a paraplegic.
The little girl, who turns 4 on May 5, also now lives with cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability, and cognitive, visual and speech issues.
She and her older sister were removed from their parents care in January, 2021.
EARLIER IN THE TRIAL:
- Dad on trial over shaken baby's lifelong injuries
- Shaken baby's mum 'needed to see a light at the end of the tunnel'
- Shaken baby's mum said she didn't get out of bed
- Shaken baby's mother admits to lying 'to avoid coming under suspicion'
- Shaken baby's 'muscles gave up and her arms and legs went floppy' Dad says
- Shaken baby trial: 'I cannot imagine another way of doing it'
- Baby would have died without treatment: Dad's trial
- Shaken baby's injuries would have been 'obvious': expert witness
Judge David has heard that the father got up to the baby at 2am, and got her out of bed that morning.
She was normal, the night before, both parents have said.
In his closing address, which continued on Tuesday, defence barrister Paul Rosser, KC, said the prosecution's narrative made no sense.
"He picks her up, when does he decide, 'I am going to grievously damage my daughter'," Mr Rosser said.
The father has said he changed the little girl's nappy before reaching for clean clothes to put on her.
He told police in an interview on December 13, 2020, "I didn't bother with the suit, and she started breathing funny, I didn't know what the hell to do, she was there but not".
"When has he done it," Mr Rosser said, pointing to the fact the mother heard nothing through the baby monitor in the parents nearby bedroom.
"All the opinions in the world as to what the injuries tell you don't make up for the fact that the evidence you have from the people were there doesn't give him an opportunity, let alone a reason," Mr Rosser said.
The mother had been diagnosed with serious mental health issues just 18 months earlier which were unresolved, he said.
"The medication was not curing anything, it was managing it, and it was up and down in terms of dosage but she appears to have made her own decisions about that, and she is, contrary to advice, and knowing she shouldn't be, she's smoking cannabis," Mr Rosser said.
She lied when asked about whether she was using illicit drugs, despite spending up to $150 week on cannabis.
She also lied about having smacked their eldest daughter, Mr Rosser said.
In order to convict the baby's father, Judge David had to accept that the mother did not get up during the night or earlier that morning before the accused, he said.
"Can we prove that she is the one that inflicted the injury on her child - of course we can't, it's not part of our burden," Mr Rosser said.
Her sister has said the mother was not a heavy sleeper, and she herself said she could get up "a million times a night" depending on how much cola she drank the night before.
"Did she do something to (the baby) which made a noise but which no one else in the house heard because the other adult was asleep," Mr Rosser said.
"I don't suggest that we can prove any of those things but we can prove there is a reasonable possibility."
