I loved Baby L as my own – boyfriend

18/11/2014 18/11/2014 The mother of "Baby L" leaves the North Gauteng High Court. NB!!!!! She cannot be identified. Picture: Phill Magakoe

18/11/2014 18/11/2014 The mother of "Baby L" leaves the North Gauteng High Court. NB!!!!! She cannot be identified. Picture: Phill Magakoe

Published Nov 27, 2014

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Pretoria - Baby L was happily helping her mother’s boyfriend unpack groceries and even searched the bags for sweets; next thing she was in a deep coma and had stopped breathing.

This is what the mother’s boyfriend told the high court in Pretoria on Wednesday in his defence to the attempted murder and child abuse charges against him. He cannot be identified to protect the child.

The girl’s biological mother, who faces the same charges, indicated on Wednesday through her advocate that she was going to apply for a discharge.

Pieter Coetzee told Judge Nico Coetzee no accusations were levelled by witnesses against the mother that she had to answer to.

But the judge first wanted to hear her co-accused’s testimony.

The judge questioned who had hurt the child, noting the girl was at all times in the care of both accused. Coetzee said when Baby L was hurt – first by falling down stairs and then falling off a washing machine – the mother had been at work.

Judge Coetzee asked who would have caused the bruises.

The little girl, now 3, is being cared for at a place of safety. Baby L cannot walk, talk or feed herself due to the extensive brain injury she suffered.

The boyfriend was adamant on Wednesday that neither he nor the mother had hurt the child.

“Never in my life. L was like my own child.”

He said she cried when she fell down the stairs, but seemed fine.

“I held her and consoled her…”

He checked her for injuries and saw a few bruises and a mark on her back, resembling a “grass burn”. He immediately phoned the mother at work and told her about it, he said.

They both later checked the child for injuries, but apart from bruises, she seemed fine. The accused said his own two children, who were living with their mother, came over for a visit and the three children cheerfully played together.

All was well until December 27, when the child fell off the washing machine. The boyfriend said he turned for a moment and heard her fall. “It was a hard fall, but she got up. I asked her if she was okay and she nodded her head… I went to fetch her a cold drink. When I turned back, I saw her fall forward. Her eyes were rolling. She was unconscious.”

The couple rushed the child to the Steve Biko hospital, where a doctor said she had mild concussion and gave them Panado syrup. “I questioned the doctor about this, but he said I was overly concerned.”

The child collapsed three days later, while helping him unpack groceries. One minute she was cheerful, the next she urinated in the kitchen, he said. He scolded her and told her to go to the toilet. He followed her and saw that she had collapsed. “Foam poured out of her mouth.” She was rushed to hospital and survived, but never recovered.

Pretoria News

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