A Tasmanian man claims he broke his newborn baby's ribs because the infant kicked him in the testicles while he was changing his nappy.
"If he kicked you in the nuts, you'd go off your head too," he later said to police.
"When I get wild, I don't know my own strength."
Crown prosecutor Kate Brown yesterday told the Supreme Court in Launceston that 23-year-old Kenneth William Blake broke both the baby's legs, three of his ribs and caused bleeding to his eye and bruising to his cheek on different occasions in the six- week-old's life.
Blake yesterday pleaded guilty to ill-treating a child.
His 21-year-old partner, Khristy Maree Fisher, pleaded guilty to the same charge on the basis she knew what her boyfriend was doing - and had done - and failed to seek medical attention for her baby.
Ms Brown told Chief Justice Ewan Crawford the offences were committed at George Town on various occasions between February and March 2009.
The violence against the baby was only discovered when a child health nurse made a scheduled visit to the pair's home.
She was met at the door by Fisher, who told her she was worried about the baby's leg as it was swollen.
When told the baby needed urgent medical attention, Blake responded by saying he felt "like slitting some ----'s throat".
Fisher later told police they had not sought medical attention for the leg injury in particular because they "thought it was just a fracture".
It was.
The baby was taken to hospital by ambulance where he was given both morphine and codeine on top of paracetamol to alleviate the pain caused by his injuries.
Neither parent attended or contacted the hospital at any point during his stay.
His physical injuries have since healed.
Both the child and a sibling are no longer in the care of the parents.
Fisher is now 4 1/2 months' pregnant.
Chief Justice Crawford yesterday rejected Blake's version that the injuries were inflicted accidentally.
The judge said it was not possible for a six-week-old baby to kick anyone with enough force to hurt them.
He rejected Blake's story that the fractured ribs must have been caused by him strapping the baby into a pram too tightly.
He rejected the suggestion the facial injuries were caused by the baby falling forward while propped up in a sitting position.
Fisher clutched Blake's knee throughout yesterday's extended court proceedings, hanging her head as the judge remanded both her and Blake in custody to reappear for sentence on August 19.
Ad Feedback The delay is because the lawyers for both prisoners want to obtain psychiatric assessments of their clients before sentencing.
Chief Justice Crawford has also ordered a disputed facts hearing be held in the meantime - at a date to be confirmed - due to the difference between Blake's claims the injuries were inflicted accidentally and the Crown's assertion they were the result of deliberate acts of violence against the baby.
Topic title changed to something a little more informative - SCRawl
I...am not sure how to comment on that. What can possibly be said? The father is a violent idiot, the mother is at best meek and broken and at worst actively malicious...
It is viscerally revolting just to imagine such a situation, and I guess we can make up theories about disorders the father has. One thing I am curious about is just how common such child abuse is. Abuse of older children AFAIK is frighteningly common, but violence against newborns?
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
PeZook wrote:I...am not sure how to comment on that. What can possibly be said? The father is a violent idiot, the mother is at best meek and broken and at worst actively malicious...
It is viscerally revolting just to imagine such a situation, and I guess we can make up theories about disorders the father has. One thing I am curious about is just how common such child abuse is. Abuse of older children AFAIK is frighteningly common, but violence against newborns?
And the "excuse" he tried to use? Exactly how hard can an infant kick?! The lunatic sounds like he thinks he was completely justified in responding with force on a six week old child.
"You were doing OK until you started to think."
-ICANT, creationist from evcforum.net
Rahvin wrote:And the "excuse" he tried to use? Exactly how hard can an infant kick?! The lunatic sounds like he thinks he was completely justified in responding with force on a six week old child.
Depending on the infant, pretty hard. I know my son at 6 weeks probably could have had me clutching my junk on the floor with a well placed kick, but I certainly wouldn't have beaten him over it.
Fuck, I got sick reading this.
I'm wondering if the mother has something like Stockholm Syndrome or the like. If so, I hope she gets significant psychiatric care.
As for the father...I won't comment. I don't want to sound like an internet tough guy about it.
SDNet: Unbelievable levels of pedantry that you can't find anywhere else on the Internet!
You never, ever ever hit a baby, ever. This shouldn't even be something that needs to be taught. Even the thought of my baby in pain is enough to keep me up at night.
To Absent Friends
Dalton | Admin Smash | Knight of the Order of SDN
"y = mx + bro" - Surlethe
"You try THAT shit again, kid, and I will mod you. I will
mod you so hard, you'll wish I were Dalton." - Lagmonster
I'm trying to figure out a configuration of baby and diaper-changer that can end with a foot to the testicles.
I've been kicked in the belly and the boobs while changing a diaper (and peed on, of course) but I can't recall my groin being in kicking range while swapping poop-filled for empty. Maybe a really tall guy and a really low changing table?
And no, not an excuse to hit a baby. Ever.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Broomstick wrote:I'm trying to figure out a configuration of baby and diaper-changer that can end with a foot to the testicles.
I've been kicked in the belly and the boobs while changing a diaper (and peed on, of course) but I can't recall my groin being in kicking range while swapping poop-filled for empty. Maybe a really tall guy and a really low changing table?
And no, not an excuse to hit a baby. Ever.
I'm 6'6". I have changed diapers. I cannot conceive of any position in which I would be able to change a diaper, regardless of the height of the table, and would still be in balls-kicking range. If I'm leaning down far enough that the kid's at the right height, my arms are way to far away to get to the diaper - I'd have to bend over from a few feet away.
"You were doing OK until you started to think."
-ICANT, creationist from evcforum.net
To expand - I'm not particularly flexible. We'd be talking about a table around the 3' height, and I'd basically have to bend in half. With a table that low, I'd probably just crouch down on one knee, it'd be far more comfortable.
"You were doing OK until you started to think."
-ICANT, creationist from evcforum.net
Worst I've ever had from changing my little brothers is my two year old bro pulling my hair. And it's not like it's painful enough to make me 'flip out' like this guy apparently did. Hell, even the two year old doesn't get any more than a 'stop it' and a stern look. Which works, he's loves being loved
As the above say, I don't see it... I guess you could contort yourself, but why would you? where is the reasoning?
"Seriously though, every time I see something like this I think 'Ooo, I'm living in the future'. Unfortunately it increasingly looks like it's going to be a cyberpunkish dystopia, where the poor eat recycled shit and the rich eat the poor." Evilsoup, on the future
I'm happy the child survived. Maybe he and his sibling will find good loving parents now. I also hope they remove the new child from the mother immediately after birth.
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
So when do we get to start using surgery to stop these bastards having kids?
"Seriously though, every time I see something like this I think 'Ooo, I'm living in the future'. Unfortunately it increasingly looks like it's going to be a cyberpunkish dystopia, where the poor eat recycled shit and the rich eat the poor." Evilsoup, on the future
Just to get ahead of the curve, we don't need any Internet tough guys here.
I'm also finding it difficult to conceive of a circumstance that could end with a baby's toes meeting my family jewels. Perhaps if he was changing the baby on the floor, and was kneeling at (roughly) the child's feet in order to access the diaper. A good kick at the wrong time might accomplish the goal, but that's still far, far from providing a reasonable excuse for striking a defenceless infant, if such a thing can be said to exist.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
"If he kicked you in the nuts, you'd go off your head too," he later said to police.
No. Especially not when it is a child.
"When I get wild, I don't know my own strength."
Ah, so you are a degenerate.
LadyTevar wrote:I'm happy the child survived. Maybe he and his sibling will find good loving parents now. I also hope they remove the new child from the mother immediately after birth.
Yes, if there was ever a situation to warrant permanently removing custody from the parents (at the very least the father), this seems like it would apply.
Frankly, the getting kicked in the nuts seems far-fetched. Maybe the asshat has just had a lot of experience with that in his sad little life and it was the first lame excuse to come to mind.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the kicking story was just made up; and that they guy beat the baby simply because it wouldn’t stop crying, then realized he needed to dream up SOME kind of excuse that was better then that. But who knows; as far as throwing him jail goes the baby could have shot him first and it wouldn't matter.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
We change our baby on our bed, and she is quite good at kicking at crotches, having connected solidly a few times. It's not really that unrealistic. But it's absolutely irrelevant. There is no way the child could have been that badly injured with a single impulsive strike. Even then the child must have been screaming in pain afterwards. I can't imagine the neglect of not tending to that immediately afterwards. To just ignore it is unconscionable and rather nauseating to think about.
What it comes down to is that his story sounds like bullshit to both parents and non-parents alike. Yes, he's trying to cover his ass.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Fisher later told police they had not sought medical attention for the leg injury in particular because they "thought it was just a fracture".
I don't think she knows what a fracture actually is, especially problematic for kids whose bones are still growing. This is what we in the medical profession politely describe as "having limited insight." My feelings for such people boil down to, if you can't take care of a child, use contraception.
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.
Countries I have been to - 14.
Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, USA.
Always on the lookout for more nice places to visit.
When told the baby needed urgent medical attention, Blake responded by saying he felt "like slitting some ----'s throat".
The guy is clearly a psycho with little to no self control. How stupid and impulsive do you have to be to give that kind of a response? I mean I realize you have to have several screws loose to beat on an infant, but I would think even a complete psychopath should have enough common sense to keep his dumb mouth shut when busted.
You have to be a particularly sick, evil little fuck to not only render such injury to a helpless infant but do nothing while the poor baby screams in indescribable pain. I can recall how I was almost in tears just hearing my own infant son's cries while being pricked for the first time for a post-natal blood test seven years ago. It tore into my heart to hear his misery, however brief.
Many adults don't have any consciousness of the awesome and terrible power they have as parents: how even one action on their part can either uplift a child for life or destroy them before they've even had a chance —in far too many cases physically.
Baby Fisher's life was saved that day. Had there been no scheduled visits by a care nurse or by any outside person, that little child would surely have ended up dead before reaching six months of age, and might have ended up dead that very day, given the violent propensities of the mother's boyfriend and the mother's utter lack of empathy.
When ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.
—Abraham Lincoln
People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
—Dr. Gregory House
Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
—The Doctor "Terror Of The Zygons" (1975)
PeZook wrote:I...am not sure how to comment on that. What can possibly be said? The father is a violent idiot, the mother is at best meek and broken and at worst actively malicious...
Akhlut wrote:I'm wondering if the mother has something like Stockholm Syndrome or the like. If so, I hope she gets significant psychiatric care.
I didn't get a solid whack in the jimmy from my son until he was, oh, three years old. And that was with a lightsaber! Oh wait, I did get tagged a couple times when he was in his terrible twos and I had to pick him up and put him somewhere else. But, still, there's really nothing I can add.
I guess there's some kind of distribution of microcephalic assholes who reproduce, and they turn up all over the world. 10 years ago I doubt we would have even known about some asshat in Tasmania abusing his infant. Thanks Internet and Chardok! I'm gonna be sick.
The only people who were safe were the legion; after one of their AT-ATs got painted dayglo pink with scarlet go faster stripes, they identified the perpetrators and exacted revenge. - Eleventh Century Remnant
Wondering if the infant did or did not kick him in the balls is inconsequential ; It's a goddamned infant! A six week baby is incapable of being actively malicious. It can't even aim for stuff with its appendages yet! Even if it somehow was a superhuman and did that on purpose, again, no reason to break its ribs. Seriously, the entire thing stinks of no self control or possibly alcohol.
Children sometimes accidentally cause injury to their parents, but nobody sane thinks that's a reason to punish them (ESPECIALLY with violence!) since they just plain don't know better.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
PeZook: totally agree. And is your new av an M-60? It looks like the one in the park a few miles away from me, but the turret's straight on mine and I'm not sure.
The only people who were safe were the legion; after one of their AT-ATs got painted dayglo pink with scarlet go faster stripes, they identified the perpetrators and exacted revenge. - Eleventh Century Remnant
