KEY POINTS:
A four-month-old baby girl who was shaken so badly she died, also had a skull fracture which was there for 10 to 14 days before her death, a jury heard today.
Alyssa Wilson also had bruising to her brain which was historic but it was the violent shaking which damaged her brain stem and caused her death, a pathologist told the trial of her father.
Joseph William Wilson, 25, has denied the manslaughter of his baby daughter on June 27, 2004.
At Wilson's trial for manslaughter in the High Court in Auckland today, Auckland pathologist Dr Simon Stables, said while he could not exclude one movement of her head which caused the brain stem damage, the current thinking was that forceful and repetitive movements backwards and forwards fatally damaged her brain stem.
The prosecution summary of facts said the "whiplash" effect of her head moving backwards and forwards would have caused Alyssa to become rapidly unconscious "if not immediately".
In court today Dr Stables said he found several injuries to her brain which was very swollen.
Apart from the skull fracture there were also several bruises, some which had been caused several weeks before her death and some possibly three to five days before her death.
He said children's skulls were quite elastic and flexible and for the skull to be fractured the force had to be severe.
Her brain was very swollen and a large area of her brain had died but the most significant injury was to her brain stem at the top of her spinal cord.
The damage to her brain was a direct complication of the damage to her brain stem, Dr Stables told the court.
He said he had not seen the injuries before in accidental deaths.
"This required a significant degree of force to cause this," he said.
The jury was expected to retire tomorrow to consider its verdict.
- NZPA
