Grandmother of baby at centre of child cruelty trial said infant 'did not look well at all' when she visited
The grandmother of the six-month-old baby girl at the centre of a child cruelty trial said the infant was making a strange noise from her throat and her eyes were dazed on the first day the baby's mother returned to work.
The witness arrived at her daughter's home that day to see the baby on her father's knee.
'I went straight over to her and she did not look well at all. She appeared to be lethargic. She was making a strange noise in her throat. Her eyes were quite dazed. She just did not look right to me,' the infant's grandmother testified.
The witness said the child's father said to his partner the child had vomited a couple of times and he had to change his clothes. The grandmother asked the defendant if he had given the infant Calpol and in that regard he replied: 'No, I didn't want to hurt her.' The child's grandmother gave her Calpol from a teaspoon.
'I said to [her daughter], you need to take her to the doctor… I said you need to call an ambulance,' she said.
She also advised her daughter that whatever had occurred they should tell the hospital the truth about it.
In a previous incident, the witness's daughter phoned again to say the baby had blood in her mouth. The witness thought it might have been an early tooth cutting the gum.
On an occasion when she was minding the baby, she noticed a 'tiny, browny coloured bruise above her nipple'.
This evidence was given in direct examination by prosecution senior counsel Jane Hyland. The cross-examination by Ray Boland senior counsel for the defence was adjourned until May 9.
The infant's father denies counts of cruelty to the baby, assault causing harm, and causing her serious harm.
The 31-year-old from Co Cork pleaded not guilty when arraigned at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, to three separate charges.
He denied assault causing harm, assault causing serious harm, and cruelty to the child on various dates from November 25, 2020, to January 2021 when is daughter was around six months old.
Much of Thursday, the third day of the trial, was spent in legal discussion, which had to be held in the absence of the jury.
The 31-year-old father of the child from Co Cork pleaded not guilty to assault causing harm, assault causing serious harm and cruelty to his daughter — on various dates from November 25, 2020, to January 2021, when she was around six months old.
Judge Dermot Sheehan asked the seven women and five men of the jury to return to Cork Circuit Criminal Court on May 9 for the case, which is expected to take at least until May 16.
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