A prominent sportsman accused of serious child abuse told police he would never take out his frustrations on a baby.
The defendant, whose name is currently suppressed, is on trial before the Dunedin District Court charged with injuring with reckless disregard, and an alternative count of assault.
The Crown case is that the sportsman was alone with the infant for less than an hour on July 16, 2023 — when the baby’s mother was at the gym — when he caused 13 broken ribs and a fractured collarbone.
The mother spent more than a day in the witness box last week, but the trial has more recently been dominated by a string of medical specialists, who concluded the injuries were caused by trauma.
Yesterday, the jury heard from the defendant for the first time, after his two video interviews with police were played.
At times tearful, the man was adamant that nothing he had done could have caused the broken bones.
“I’ve never put him in harm’s way or put him in a situation where it was going to hurt him,” the defendant told Detective Wayne O’Connell in August 2023.
“I would never take [frustration] out … on [him].”
The man said the diagnosis of the injuries had resulted in him desperately searching for answers, without success.
“I don’t recollect when I have squeezed him or put him under that pressure,” the defendant said.
Det O’Connell asked him whether he was quick to anger.
“No, I don’t have a short temper,” the man said.
“I’d never take it out on anyone. If anything I’d take it out on myself.”
A couple of months later, there was another recorded interview.
Det O’Connell detailed finalised medical reports, which unanimously found the infant’s injuries were “almost certainly the result of abusive trauma”.
“These medical reports are all stacking up and they’re all suggesting something has happened. This is likely a one-off incident where something’s occurred,” the officer said.
The defendant repeated several times he was not to blame.
“I’ve told you, there’s nothing that’s happened … it feels like you just think it’s me,” he said.
That same day, he was charged.
Earlier the court heard of the defendant’s initial statement to police during which he expressed shock and confusion as to how the injuries had been caused.
He also outlined the sequence of events on the day the abuse allegedly occurred.
The defendant said the child woke about 20 minutes after the mother had left the house.
He described trying to feed him using a bottle, but the “cranky” child became upset.
He also detailed three different burping techniques he tried, without success.
“I got upset, put [the child] down in the bassinet and called [his mother] for help,” the defendant said.
She returned shortly afterwards and previously told the jury she had no issue calming her infant.
It was two days later when the mother felt a popping in her son’s chest and was referred to the emergency department where the fractures were discovered.
Paediatric radiologist Dr Susan Craw said the baby’s “crackling feeling” was found to be the ends of the ribs grating against each other.
Under cross-examination, the woman said in 40 years of work she had never seen or heard of fractures being displaced during radiological procedures.
The trial, before Judge David Robinson, will continue today.
rob.kidd@odt.co.nz , Court reporter