The trial of a 30-year-old father charged with aggravated assault on his newborn child opened Monday at the Sherbrooke Courthouse.
The man is suspected of abusing his boy, who was just 11 days old at the time of his hospitalization in March 2022.
The child suffered head trauma that was not inflicted accidentally or through abuse on the part of the defendant, said Me Marilène Laviolette, one of the prosecutors in the criminal case in the case.
The child is likely to have suffered after-effects, the extent and nature of which we currently do not know, as none of the first witnesses have provided a picture of his current state of health.
The analysis of the differential diagnosis and the various examinations carried out during the care of the baby in the pediatric intensive care unit of the hospital of the Center Hospitalier de l’Université de Sherbrooke-Fleurimont led the intensive care doctors to conclude that it was a case B .trauma, non-accidental head injury (NACT), or shaken baby syndrome.
“The child showed a change in his state of consciousness […]. “He didn’t react like a normal 11-day-old child,” said Dr. Jean-Sébastien Tremblay-Roy, pediatric intensive care physician at CHUS-Fleurimont, testified for the prosecution.
“During the medical imaging study, we noticed severe bleeding and the presence of subdural hematomas in numerous locations,” added Dr. Tremblay Roy added.
The ophthalmologist’s examination revealed no retinal hemorrhage, one of the main symptoms of subdural hematomas, which usually supports the theory that a baby was shaken.
The presence of bruises on the child’s back, fractures of the ribs and left femur, as well as the manifestations of convulsions consolidated his opinion: “I agree with the report of Dr. Caroline Langlais too […]. The most likely diagnosis is that of TCNA related to abuse.
Previously, obstetric gynecologist Dr. Amélie Bertrand said that she gave birth to the child by cesarean section ten days before his hospitalization. According to her, everything went well and the child was in good health.
When asked by the defendant’s lawyer whether her manipulations could have caused fractures to parts of the baby’s body that would not have been discovered before she was discharged home, the witness replied that this was unlikely.
The defense also pointed out in one of their cross-examinations that the defendant had unfortunately suffered the loss of another baby, a girl about ten days old, a few years earlier. Brain damage would have led to the death of the child from another marriage after, as Mr Patrick Fréchette mentioned to the witness, a difficult birth in which forceps had to be used.
It is important to clarify that the father was never accused or suspected of any criminal act in connection with the unfortunate and coincidental events that occurred at that time.
These are difficult cases for a judge to decide because there are usually no direct witnesses and require near-absolute certainty that abuse has occurred.
The prosecution wants to name a total of 14 witnesses.
The defense will also present an expert witness, an American neurologist named Julie Mach.
The trial will take place before Judge Julie Beauchesne of the Criminal Division of the Quebec Court.