{"id":251127,"date":"2025-10-30T15:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/251127\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:12:08","slug":"baby-killer-was-tired-frustrated-before-assaulting-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/251127\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby killer was tired, frustrated before assaulting boy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baby Elijah spent the first three months of his life in hospital, requiring oxygen and breathing support after being born prematurely.<\/p>\n

He was finally released into his mother Elyce’s care on January 13, 2024, but six days later, her boyfriend Benjamin Joseph Swann killed the little boy.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old had gone to Elijah’s room to settle the crying baby about 4am on January 19 when Elyce heard a loud bang.<\/p>\n

Swann returned to the bedroom carrying Elijah and told Elyce to “take this f—ing baby” before he left to make up a bottle.<\/p>\n

That’s when Elyce realised her son was making an unusual wheezing sound and appeared to be gasping for breath.<\/p>\n

\"VictoriaSwann pleaded guilty to child homicide in Victoria Supreme Court. (Getty)<\/p>\n

Swann told her to wait when she suggested they call an ambulance, but she ignored him after noticing her son was turning blue.<\/p>\n

Elijah was taken to hospital by paramedics, and doctors ultimately determined he had suffered a non-survivable brain injury due to a blunt force trauma to the head.<\/p>\n

He was taken off life support and died in his mother’s arms in the early hours of January 20 at only 115 days old.<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath and when he was arrested on February 8, Swann denied he had struck Elijah, pushed the little boy or dropped him.<\/p>\n

He also deflected the blame to Elyce, claiming she had been suffering from severe post-natal depression and was capable of doing something to her son.<\/p>\n

Swann continued to deny he killed Elijah for another 20 months before he finally pleaded guilty to child homicide in the Victorian Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Elyce confronted her former partner during his plea hearing on Thursday, saying she regretted bringing his “cancerous evil” into their lives.<\/p>\n

“I believed his lies when he said he wanted to be Elijah’s stepdad,” she told the court.<\/p>\n

“I never should have trusted him.”<\/p>\n

Elyce said it had been her lifelong ambition to become a mother, but now her days were filled with continuous devastation.<\/p>\n

“I had to watch the colour drain from my son’s skin,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This unimaginable pain … is one that no one should have to suffer.”<\/p>\n

Swann appeared to wipe away tears as the statement was read aloud, but his barrister, Rishi Nathwani KC, conceded he could not say there was evidence of remorse.<\/p>\n

\"ProsecutorProsecutor Mark Gibson SC accepted that Swann tried to deflect the blame. (The Age)<\/p>\n

Swann had been in a volatile relationship with Elyce and was seeking help for anger management issues and drug use in the lead-up to Elijah’s death, Nathwani said.<\/p>\n

But Swann had no prior convictions for violence against children, and he did not have a history of being abusive towards Elijah, the barrister argued.<\/p>\n

Swann carried out the single act of violence against the baby boy while he was frustrated, tired and angry, Nathwani said.<\/p>\n

It was accepted that Swann then tried to deflect blame towards the mother, but Nathwani said admitting his actions sooner would not have changed the outcome for the little boy.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson KC also accepted that was the case.<\/p>\n

“The injury itself was so severe that Elijah’s fate was sealed from the outset,” Gibson told the court.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor argued deterrence was important in sentencing as Swann needed to know he could not take out his anger against a child, even when he was tired and frustrated.<\/p>\n

Justice James Gorton will sentence Swann at a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baby Elijah spent the first three months of his life in hospital, requiring oxygen and breathing support after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-251127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}