A court has been told the death of a toddler on the NSW Mid North Coast was “a tragedy, but it wasn’t a murder”.
WARNING: This story contains details of child abuse that some might find distressing.
The child’s 40-year-old stepfather is standing trial in the Supreme Court, accused of murdering a two-year-old boy at Coffs Harbour in May 2022.
On May 23 that year, the child’s mother tried to wake the child but he did not respond.
The toddler was flown from Coffs Harbour Hospital to John Hunter in Newcastle, where he died of a catastrophic brain injury the following day.
The boy was also found to have a fractured pelvis, a fractured rib and bruising on his body.
Defence barrister David Price today told the court nobody had ever admitted to inflicting an assault on the young boy.
“Nobody really knows what happened to that little boy in late May 2022,” Mr Price said.
‘Circumstantial’ case
In September 2024, a coronial inquest into the child’s death was suspended after a magistrate found there was enough evidence to charge the accused with murder.
Yesterday, Crown prosecutor Ben Allison told the court the case was circumstantial because no-one saw the alleged murder take place.
But he told the court evidence would show the accused would discipline the two-year-old for behaviour he deemed “naughty”.
“He developed a frustration and an anger to him,” Mr Allison said.
“He would send him to his room, taking away his pillow, bed and mattress. The accused would take him into the garage and place him on the concrete floor and sometimes turn the light off and close the door.
“If he was naughty in the garage, he would take him into the bath where he would splash and scream.”
The prosecutor told the court the accused’s uncle would testify that his nephew described the boy as an “out of control c***, who needs to be sorted out”.
“He saw the accused erupt in anger, ‘what the f*** are you doing, get out of his car, you little f***’, before grabbing him and smacking him,” Mr Allison told the court.
The two-year-old boy died from his injuries at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. (ABC News: Dan Cox)
A fall down stairs
The court heard on the afternoon before his death, the toddler fell down some outside stairs and had a head-banging episode in the early hours of the morning.
But Mr Allison told the court the severity of the child’s injuries could not be from those events alone.
“You’ll hear the injuries are associated with non-accidental head trauma,” he said.
The prosecution will also allege the accused told the child’s mother to lie to police and tell them he was not at the house.
“Two hours after he was pronounced dead she called police and told them she hadn’t been honest,” Mr Allison told the court.
The defence barrister told the court the “real issue in this trial” was what or who caused the fatal injury.
“What we do know, and it’s not disputed, is that his death was a result of a subdural haematoma,” Mr Price said.
The trial heard the little boy’s mother gave several versions to police about how she found the boy banging his head in the early hours of the morning before he went to hospital.
“She saw him on all fours violently slamming his head into the floor. She saw him repeat this three to four times,” Mr Price said.
The accused remains on bail.
The trial is expected to run for five weeks.
