UK parents 'used objects to hit baby'
A baby boy less than four months old was violently assaulted by his own parents, including being hit with an item like an electrical flex or plastic ruler, a court heard today.
Ethan Sheldon's injuries were only discovered when a health visitor came to weigh him and saw "linear" red marks on his legs which "set alarm bells ringing", Plymouth Crown Court heard.
After he was taken to hospital the same day by his parents Christopher and Charlotte Sheldon, an X-ray revealed healing fractures, including to three left ribs, his left collar bone, his right shin and one of his big toes. He was also found to have 20 bruises on different parts of his body.
The court, where both parents are standing trial accused of child cruelty, heard the injuries could not have occurred accidentally, with an expert saying that the bruises were consistent with being struck with a solid but flexible item, like a flex, a ruler or "an item of cutlery" some time in the days before he was examined in hospital on October 5 last year.
Both parents initially denied they or each other were responsible, though the court heard that Christopher (aged 31) will claim during the trial that his 23-year-old student wife was responsible.
Jo Martin, prosecuting, said that only the parents had enough access to Ethan in the months after he was born on May 28 last year, to have caused the injuries. Either they committed them together, she said, or one was covering for the other.
"By the time he was little more than four months of age he had been assaulted on at least three occasions," she told the jury of six men and six women.
"There is no question that these broken bones and bruises that Ethan suffered were caused by anything other than being struck by an adult, being assaulted by an adult.
"There is no question that the injuries could have been caused by anyone other than Christopher and Charlotte Sheldon. They accept that it must have been one or other of them.
"Neither of them has given an explanation as to how these injuries were caused."
Christopher, of Mount Batten Avenue, Plymouth, and Charlotte, who still lives in the family home in Sefton Avenue, Plymouth, both wept as the court heard details of their son's injuries.
The court heard that by the time health visitor Susan Clarke visited their home on October 4 last year, Ethan had already been hospitalised once for several days because he was "very, very thin".
Ms Clarke told the court that after Charlotte undressed her son, she saw "symmetrical" marks on his legs and immediately asked about them.
Charlotte said her unemployed husband, who was being treated at the time for anxiety and depression, had seen them the previous evening while looking after the baby as she attended college, the court heard. He later confirmed this. But neither parent could offer an explanation as to how he suffered them.
Ms Clarke told the court she was suspicious enough to have Ethan admitted to the paediatric ward of the city's Derriford Hospital, where he was examined and his injuries found.
The rib, collar bone and toe fractures, the court heard, were consistent with "significant squeezing" far in excess of normal cuddling, while the leg injury was likely to have been caused by a "sharp twist and a jerk" of the limb.
The court heard that Charlotte sent a text message to her husband, despite him only being in bed at the house, telling him she was taking Ethan to hospital and asking him to come with them. He later replied: "You said not to worry. Stop messing me about."
Nicholas Lewin, representing Charlotte Sheldon, went through a list of dates during the period he was believed to have been injured when Ethan had been weighed while naked and seen by GPs, but where no mention had been made of injuries or problems, apart from his low weight.
Both parents deny two joint charges of child cruelty. The trial continues.
