Young man who shook infant daughter is spared prison at Letterkenny Circuit Court

A judge has said he could not send a man to prison despite his admission that he shook his baby daughter causing her brain damage and cracking her ribs.

The man (21) appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court yesterday and admitted three counts of assault causing harm. He shook the baby girl three times, twice with his hands and once in her pram.

Garda Joe McManus said the accused was babysitting the child on May 19th, 2011, when she took ill. He had placed the baby on the sofa and she was sleeping but she began to suffer convulsions. He called an ambulance and they were rushed to Letterkenny General Hospital.

The child was later transferred to Temple Street children’s hospital where older injuries were discovered. Members of social services along with doctors carried out examinations and decided that the injuries were not accidental.

The father of the child then made an admission that he shook the little girl three times because he could not get her to stop crying.

He was arrested and made the admissions and has since received full psychiatric evaluation and counselling. The court also heard the man rarely went out and had tried to take his own life.

Parents separated
The court heard that the child's parents had been in a relationship since they were just 15 but they had separated before the injuries were caused to the child. Despite the separation, the man still had a very active part in the child's upbringing and regularly babysat for the child's mother.

Judge John O’Hagan invited the mother to give evidence. He asked her if she thought her former boyfriend meant to hurt their daughter. The woman replied that she honestly could not say.

The judge then asked if he thought an occasion would ever arise when the man would be able to see his daughter unsupervised. Again the woman said she did not know but said he did now have supervised access when the little girl stayed with his parents at weekends from Friday night until Sunday night.

Charlotte Simpson said the defendant, her client, felt sick and ashamed of what he had done and would have to live with it for the rest of his life. She added he was still the little girl's hero and she ran to him every weekend and hugged him every time he stayed with her.

Judge John O’Hagan said that having heard all the evidence there was no way he was imposing a custodial sentence. “This is a very emotional case. It’s a tragic case of a dad who lost it,” he said.

“He was faced with a situation of a little girl crying and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. He picked her up twice and shook her but of course that didn’t keep her quiet.

“He’s 21. What experience of fatherhood does a person have at that age? I don’t know. It’s very stressful for anyone.

“I’m sure he had no idea what he was doing but the consequences are rather serious. A nine-week-old baby is like putty and this happened. I have no doubt he did not intend this to happen.

“The upset and crying of the baby was driving him mad. I know now that he knows it was the wrong thing to do but I don’t think he will ever do it again.”

Social stigma
The judge added that the man would have to live with the social stigma of what happened and knowing every day that he caused these injuries to his little girl.

He sentenced him to one year in prison on each charge to run concurrently but ordered that the jail sentence be replaced by 150 hours of community service.