Couple accused of child abuse 'discussed having baby adopted'

Parents accused of assaulting a baby who suffered 22 fractures talked about having him adopted after their first night at home with him, a court was told yesterday.

Hospital midwife Kathleen Farquhar told a Nelson District Court jury yesterday that the day after the couple arrived home with the baby she had advised them how to cope.

The mother had said he was crying a lot and was difficult to settle.

She said the 18-year-old mother had said that she and her 25-year-old partner considered putting the child up for adoption after that first night at home.

The parents, who have interim name suppression, have denied three charges of causing grievous bodily harm to the baby with intent, one charge of causing grievous bodily harm to him with intent to injure, and two of assaulting the child.

They also have been charged with one count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by inducing someone else to make a false confession.

Crown prosecutor Craig Stevenson told the jury the baby was born on May 23 last year in Nelson.

After he was taken home, midwives noticed the baby had trouble breathing, bruising on his pubic bone and to his fingernails, broken skin on his hands, and fluctuating weight under and over his birth weight.

The parents returned the baby to Nelson Hospital on June 17 last year.

X-rays revealed 21 fractures to the baby, including a fractured upper left arm and 14 fractured ribs -- some of which had been broken in more than one place.

Some of the breaks could have been one to two weeks old, Mr Stevenson said.

He said a specialist found the injuries were deliberately inflicted, probably caused by squeezing the child, and likened them to the type received in a high speed car crash.

The parents, who were suspected of causing the injuries, were allowed access to the baby in hospital under close supervision.

However, sometimes they were alone with the child, and on June 23, the mother handed the bay baby to a nurse at the hospital and he was later found to have a fracture on his right arm.

When spoken to by police on June 25 the father said the fracture to the left arm could have happened accidentally while he was burping the boy.

He denied any knowledge of the other injuries, and the mother declined to make a statement.

Mr Stevenson said on June 27 the couple went to the woman's brother's house and she asked him to take the rap for them.

He said the brother felt his sister's partner was trying to intimidate him and later complained to police about what had been asked.

On June 31, the woman denied any involvement in the baby's injuries but acknowledged to police it was her idea to get her brother to take the rap for the injuries, Mr Stevenson said.

Yesterday the brother, whose name is suppressed, told the court his sister's partner seemed overprotective of the baby.

He also agreed he told police after the birth his sister sometimes came to visit him and his father alone because her partner was so possessive he would not allow her to do anything but feed the baby.

The man said sometimes his sister's partner could be violent and "explode in a moment".

He said both his sister and her partner had been happy about having a child.

Nineteen witnesses will be called for the Crown. The trial continues today.

- nzpa