Pretoria - A woman and her boyfriend are expected to appear in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday for attempted murder, child abuse and failure to provide medical assistance to the woman's two-year-old daughter.
During their last appearance in November last year, the 21-year-old woman and her 37-year-old boyfriend denied trying to kill Baby L, abuse her, or deprive her of medical care.
However, prosecutor Salome Scheepers argued that the only reason the mother did not notice the child's injuries was either because she did not care about her child, or because she or her boyfriend were abusing Baby L and she was trying to hide it.
The woman told the court her boyfriend sent her an sms on December 15, 2013 to tell her that he and Baby L had fallen down a staircase, and on December 27 that the baby was unconscious after she fell off a washing machine.
The court heard that Baby L must have been unconscious for almost an hour on December 27 before her mother arrived home from work and took her to hospital.
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 on 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