A man who did not seek medical attention for his girlfriend’s nine-month-old baby when he noticed she was injured has been jailed for 21 months.
The 27-year-old Dublin man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to wilfully ill-treating or neglecting a child by failing to seek suitable medical aid for the child in March 2024. The child’s mother is still before the courts.
The man has previous convictions from the District Court for possession of knives, public order and criminal damage.
A medical report indicated the injuries were non-accidental and included fractures to the baby’s arms and legs, bruising to the head, face and body and “historical injuries”.
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Diana Stuart SC, prosecuting, told Judge Martin Nolan it was the State’s case the man was aware of the child’s suffering and failed to seek medical treatment.
A local detective told Ms Stuart social workers had been involved with the child and her mother for a period of time, when it was discovered the accused began a relationship with the woman in February 2024.
A social worker called to the child’s home and indicated to the mother of the child and the accused that he could not be alone with the child unsupervised until vetting forms had been completed.
The social worker implemented a safety plan and told gardaí she believed the accused understood and accepted the plan.
Social workers were later alerted to the fact that, despite these plans being in place, the accused began to drop the child to creche by himself.
The detective said social workers were later informed by the child’s creche that the woman and man had got a dog for the baby. There were some concerns as the creche staff had noticed there were scratches on the baby’s face.
Calls were made to the mother’s home, and while it was thought the couple were in at the time, nobody answered the door.
The gardaí were later informed the child’s mother had dialled emergency services on March 19th, 2024, looking for the baby to be taken to hospital.
When gardaí called to the home to follow up, they found the place in disarray and noticed that there was no milk or food for the baby, the cot mattress was stained with dry vomit and the flat was in general disarray.
The man later told gardaí he went to bed at 9pm that night and the baby was in their cot. He said the baby woke at 4am and was unsettled. He then woke at 7am with the alarm to take the child to creche.
He said he noticed bruising to the baby’s face. The detective said the man gave a number of different accounts of what happened that night but she said that CCTV footage proved both he and the child’s mother were in the flat that night.
The detective agreed with Damien Colgan SC, defending, that while the bruising was visible on the baby’s face, the other injuries were not obvious.
She accepted that both he and the child’s mother had drug addictions. Mr Colgan said his client “should have done something that he didn’t do – he did not get the medical attention he should have”.
He asked the court to accept his plea of guilty and co-operation with the garda investigation. Counsel submitted that his client “got caught up” with the woman in her drug taking.
Judge Nolan said the child was brought to hospital and had sustained quite serious injuries with medical practitioners concluding that the baby had “suffered intentional violence”.
He said the man had pleaded guilty on the basis that he noticed a specific situation and didn’t seek medical attention.
“This was a vulnerable child. It is the responsibility of appropriate adults to take care of children and in this case he failed to do so,” Judge Nolan said.
The judge said it was a valuable plea and that even though “gardaí have done everything they can” in the case, it would have been a difficult case to prove.
