Mom’s boyfriend harmed Baby L: lawyer

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Published Nov 27, 2014

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Pretoria - A 37-year-old man had to have done something to two-year-old “Baby L” for her to faint, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Thursday.

“Sir, she fainted. Something had to happen to her... You were alone with her, it had to be you,” prosecutor Salome Scheepers told Baby L's mother's boyfriend.

He denied ever doing anything to Baby L, who was in a coma when she was rushed to the Akasia hospital on December 30 last year.

He told the court the only people who were with Baby L on December 30 was himself and a woman friend of his he did not want to name.

He said he went to the shop with his mother and sister and Baby L was left alone with the woman.

Scheepers said doctors testified in court that a high energy incident caused Baby L to fall into a coma.

“I put it to you that you had a relationship with your friend and you don't want (Baby L's mother) to find out,” Scheepers said.

She said he either left Baby L alone at home and went to the shops because he was angry at her, or his friend injured the toddler.

The man denied it and said the toddler was fine afterwards and no one injured her.

Scheepers also said the possible drowning of Baby L could have happened because he left Baby L alone in the bath.

He could not remember how he contacted his mother and sister to ask them to fetch him to take the toddler to hospital.

Scheepers said he smsed his mother instead of calling her.

When she asked him about blue marks on the girl's buttocks he said: “I never hit (Baby L) hard enough for her to turn blue.”

However, he soon changed his reply and said he had never hit the toddler.

Scheepers said: “You and or (her mother) assaulted her.”

Either the mother knew about it and did nothing, or was part of it. The man denied the claims.

“You took her life away, she doesn't have a life anymore,” Scheepers said.

On Wednesday, the court heard how Baby L fell down stairs and how she collapsed and was unconscious in the care of her mother's boyfriend.

He said the toddler fell off steps on December 15 last year and she was crying a lot and he held her tightly, kissed her and consoled her before taking her up into the flat.

He also described how the toddler fell from a washing machine on December 27, when he was looking for new pants and underwear after she had an accident. At the hospital, the doctor told them it was not serious and was a mild concussion.

On Tuesday, a medical expert testified that Baby L was not injured accidentally but was a victim of child abuse.

Dr Lorraine Du Toit-Prinsloo, a forensic pathologist, testified that the toddler was already in a coma when she was rushed to the Akasia Hospital on December 30 last year.

She had bleeding in her brain, a fractured hip, blood in her abdomen, a bruised kidney, a serious injury to the pancreas and bruises all over her body. She was in a vegetative state because of severe brain damage.

Sapa

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