29th November 2010: By Melanie Adams
Dr Marcus Likeman, a consultant paediatric neuroradiologist, said scans showed that the child had three significant bleeds around the brain.
He told Southampton Crown Court that the positions of the bleeding and the presence of fresh blood at all three sites “implies” that the baby was shaken.
Prosecutors say that Daniel Holdaway, pictured, “deliberately” and “excessively” shook the baby, causing three rib fractures and bleeding around the brain.
Holdaway, 21, of Clovelly Road, St Mary’s, denies all three charges of grievous bodily harm on a baby on three separate occasions over a twomonth period.
CT and MRI scans taken of the baby’s brain in the days after it was rushed into Southampton General Hospital revealed haemorrhages on both sides of the top of the brain and at the back.
Dr Likeman said: “This type of bleeding… is pretty much associated with a shaking injury. There is a consensus view among professionals in this area that it is not something that will occur in normal handling of a child or even rough play.”
The jury also heard evidence from Dr Mary Gawne-Cain, paediatric neuroradiologist at S o u t h a m p t o n General Hospital, who was the first to look at the infant’s brain scans.
She said: “I was concerned that these sorts of findings suggested a possible head injury by a rotational head injury. This may occur if the head rotates and the typical way of thinking about this is if you roll the head forwards and backwards sharply.
“In a small baby the sort of thing that might cause this would be shaking a baby.”
Proceeding.
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/8708197.print/
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