Her two-month-old baby had 22 fractures to his ribs, two broken arms, his brain injuries were so extensive that his swollen brain was buckling the skull and his whole body was covered in bruises – yet the child’s mother is adamant that she noticed none of these injuries.
This was in spite of a neurosurgeon earlier telling the Pretoria High Court that the injuries were so obvious that anyone could see them clearly.
But the child’s mother, Marissa Rudman, on Monday said that the first time she noticed any marks on baby Wade was when she bathed him a few days before his death and saw a “slight bruise” on the right side of his face, small puncture marks around his head and noticed a redness around his nose. He also had a thumb mark on his forehead.
Rudman thought this was caused by the doctor and nurses at the Pretoria West Hospital, who, a few days before, had battled to get a drip inserted into his head. She had taken the baby to the hospital as he had not been well, but later discharged him herself as she thought the doctors were “stupid” and did not know how to treat her child.
Rudman testified that a few days before the child’s death, it appeared that he was slightly better, as he was quieter. But State prosecutor Cornelia Harmse on Monday told her that this would be obvious, as the baby had been going into coma by then, owing to his head injuries. A doctor who saw him a few days later said that part of his brain was already dying off.
“I did not see any injuries… I have asked myself for the past three years and 20 times a day why I did not notice the injuries,” a near-hysterical Rudman told the court.
She is facing a charge of murder, together with the baby’s father, Nolan Schoeman, following the death of Wade on April 7, 2009, in the Steve Biko Hospital. They are also facing a charge of child abuse relating to the baby, as well as a third charge of child abuse relating to another alleged victim, who is now nine.
Both are adamant that they did not hurt either of these children nor saw anyone hurt them.
Rudman said she did not even suspect Schoeman after the nine-year-old called her on April 3, 2009, while she was in the lounge of their Valhalla flat. Schoeman had been in the bedroom with the baby at the time.
“The child called me and hysterically screamed ‘Nolan is hurting the baby’. I rushed to the bedroom and saw Nolan standing with the lifeless baby in his hands. The baby’s arms were hanging limply by his sides. He did not make a sound. His back pulled up and I saw he was having a fit. It was the most painful thing I have ever seen. I hysterically shouted that we had to take the baby to hospital.”
Rudman said that when she handed the baby to a nurse, the latter asked her whether she had dropped the child. It was only after the staff pointed out some of the injuries to her and told her that the baby had been abused that Rudman had started suspecting Schoeman.
However, she did not confront him about it, she said, as she had been “traumatised” and afraid of him.
Rudman was on Monday shown pictures taken of the dead child and was asked to comment on the severity of the vast number of injuries, clearly visible. The sobbing mother insisted that she had not noticed the injuries. “It is the truth,” she said, burying her face in her hands.
Rudman said Schoeman mostly insisted on bathing the baby and changing his nappies. She said she had not suspected that he was abusing the baby.
Although she noticed the baby had been “uncomfortable” for a few days before his death, and she had wanted to take him to a paediatrician but had no money to do so, she only “realised he was seriously ill” when he was eventually admitted to hospital.
Rudman earlier testified how Schoeman used to assault her to such an extent that she had a broken nose and bruises. He “forced” her to hide her injuries, she said while crying to such an extent that Judge Cynthia Pretorius told her the court was “not impressed by emotions, but only dealt with facts”. The prosecutor, during cross-examination, told Rudman: “You keep on going back to yourself. I would like to hear about the baby.”
Schoeman, sitting in the dock, looked straight at Rudman while she testified and kept on shaking his head.
The trial continues. - Pretoria News