A 40-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering a two-year-old boy on the New South Wales Mid North Coast in 2022.<\/p>\n
Warning: This story contains details of child abuse that some readers might find distressing.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was standing trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court accused of murdering the child at a home in Coffs Harbour.<\/p>\n
After hearing four weeks of evidence, the jury returned a guilty verdict on Monday after deliberating for four days.<\/p>\n
The offender, who had been out on bail, was taken into custody.<\/p>\n
During the trial, the jury heard that on May 23, 2022, the toddler’s mother tried to wake him at the home, but he did not respond.<\/p>\n
He was flown to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, where he died of a catastrophic brain injury two days later.<\/p>\n
The two-year-old was found to have a fractured pelvis, rib and bruising on his body, including his penis.<\/p>\n
The trial heard the man was in a relationship and living with the child’s mother at the time of the baby’s death.<\/p>\n
During the trial, the jury heard evidence that the accused would discipline the child by locking him in a dark garage with the lights off, putting him in the bath and by taking away his mattress and pillow.<\/p>\n
The perpetrator spent 10 months in prison, and was given bail on August 28, 2025.<\/p>\n
During the trial, the jury heard from a number of experts who detailed the chances of the baby sustaining the injuries from a head banging episode or a fall down the stairs the afternoon before.<\/p>\n
Paediatric endocrinologist Margaret Zacharin gave evidence earlier this month stating her professional opinion was that the injuries were inflicted.<\/p>\n
Defence barrister David Price said no-one had ever admitted to inflicting an assault on the young boy as it was a circumstantial case.<\/p>\n
Justice Philip Boulten told the court the defence requested the offender remain on bail so that he could do a few things around the house before he was put into custody.<\/p>\n
“Mr Price says it’d be good to have a day or so to get his house in order,” Judge Boulten said.<\/p>\n
Judge Boulten told the court the defence also requested he remain on bail due to his medical conditions.<\/p>\n
“He has issues that relate to episodic changes of consciousness or fits. This has been pointed out by his counsel,” Judge Boulten said.<\/p>\n
“Effectively the corrective services are going to have to find a way to deal with him.”<\/p>\n
Justice Boulten told the court the risk of the offender not appearing in court on the next occasion was high.<\/p>\n
“In the wake of a guilty verdict to murder, the prospects of not appearing are heightened. The risk of flight even overnight are real.”<\/p>\n
“I do not find this an exceptional or special case or that there are special circumstances that justify the granting of bail,” Judge Boulten said.<\/p>\n
The man has been refused bail and will be sentenced on October 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 40-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering a two-year-old boy on the New South Wales Mid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[386960,386959,43,386963,386961,44,41,39,42,40,386962],"class_list":["post-812054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aaron-mcleod","tag-baby-murder-coffs-harbour","tag-headlines","tag-jury-find-man-guilty-murder-toddler","tag-man-guilty-murder-baby-death","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-two-year-old-murder-mid-north-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812054","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=812054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}