‘I would love to know who did this to my baby son… When this case is over I am going to investigate who did this.” Nolan Schoeman made this vow while testifying at his murder trial on Wednesday.
He and his partner, Marissa Rudman, deny that they were responsible for the injuries that led to the death of their two-month-old son, Wade, on April 7, 2009, at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital.
Both are adamant that they did not see any injuries on the baby, apart from “slight bruises” around his head.
The infant’s forearms were broken, he had 22 fractures to his ribs, and brain injuries that were so severe that by the time he got to hospital, part of his brain was dying.
Neither Schoeman nor Rudman “realised” that their baby was going into a coma when they bathed him on the night he was rushed to hospital.
They told the Pretoria High Court that they noticed the baby was quieter, but realised something was seriously wrong only when he suddenly made a strange, high-pitched, screeching sound and had convulsions.
After being told by the hospital that the baby had been abused, Rudman suspected Schoeman, but continued living with him for two years after they had been arrested and released on bail.
Schoeman testified on Wednesday that he loved Rudman dearly and had not suspected her of hurting the baby.
However, when she asked him whether he had abused the baby, he assaulted her, he said.
“We then mutually agreed that neither of us killed Wade,” Schoeman said.
He said the couple remained together happily until Schoeman’s bail was revoked because he did not pitch up at court.
When he phoned Rudman from prison, she suddenly did not want to have anything to do with him, he testified.
Rudman, who referred to the baby’s father as a sadist, said earlier that she suspected Schoeman, but was “too afraid of him” to confront him further about whether he was responsible.
Schoeman testified that his “number one” suspect was probably a man called Lee, whom he met and did drugs with, and who was staying at their home at the time.
He conceded that he had not told the police about his suspicion and had not confronted the man.
Schoeman said Lee continued living in their Valhalla flat with them and they went on drug sprees together, although Baby Wade was fighting for his life in hospital.
The State pointed out that according to Rudman’s evidence and that of a doctor, Lee had not been living with the couple at the time that the baby received the head injuries.
Asked why he had visited his son in hospital only twice, Schoeman said he could not stand seeing the baby attached to a ventilator.
He was also “doing a lot of drugs” at the time to try to cope with the situation.
“I admit I was a bad father,” Schoeman said.
“I did too much drugs, but I never hurt my son.”
Schoeman could not answer a lot of questions and claimed memory loss due to his drug addiction.
Asked by the State whether he had perhaps forgotten that he had punched the baby on the head, he was adamant that he had not done so.
“Drugs did take over my life, but it is not my defence that I killed my son because of drugs,” Schoeman said.
“I neglected my son, but I never killed him… I loved him with all my heart and I miss him.”
The case has been postponed to May 15, when Rudman is expected to call a paediatrician to testify on her behalf regarding the visibility of the baby’s injuries.
She is refuting evidence by the State that the injuries were so visible that anyone would have noticed them. - Pretoria News