Father jailed for squashing baby
Lisa Allan
April 27, 2007

A MAN who killed his crying seven-week-old daughter by sitting on her as her mother slept in another room has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

The 25-year-old sat on the baby because he did not want her mother to wake up, hear her crying and think he was a bad father, the New South Wales Supreme Court in Newcastle was told today.

The man had a history of violence toward the little girl and admitted to sitting on her once previously and hitting her twice in the head after becoming frustrated by her crying.

Justice Robert Hulme sentenced the man, who cannot be named, to a non-parole period of four years and six months and a maximum term of seven-and-a-half years for the "bizarre" manslaughter. He said for some offenders, "their feelings of guilt or remorse operate more strongly than punishment is likely to do".

The court today heard the baby died shortly after her father laid her on the lounge and sat on her in the early hours of July 13, 2005. " The crying stopped, the evidence suggesting that the child stopped breathing at that time," Justice Hulme said.

The man immediately awoke the baby's mother, dialled triple-0 and commenced CPR, but she died after being taken to hospital. A post-mortem examination showed she had bruises of various ages on her face, fractures to a number of ribs and internal haemorrhages to her head.

The injuries were "consistent with an overall pattern of child abuse", Justice Hulme said. The baby's father admitted to police he had sat on her "for a significant period". Justice Hulme said the man had a "history of becoming increasingly frustrated at (the baby's) crying".

He said the man told a psychiatrist he did not know how to stop his daughter's crying and did not want to wake her mother, who was asleep in another room.



Source: © 2007 The Sunday Times