A father accused of killing his baby daughter maintains he can't remember what happened the night she sustained fatal injuries, thoughThomas Holford has accepted blame for the crime of manslaughter. Everleigh Stroud, was an infant who was only five weeks old when she died. Prior to the child's death, she had been placed in the care of Holford, who was living in Ramsgate at the time. He was in charge of watching over the baby while the teen mother was visiting a friend.
Holford told the jury that after settling his daughter in her bed and going to sleep himself, his next memory was being woken by Casey, who had arrived home the next morning to find their newborn very ill. Everleigh, the baby girl, had many broken bones, including her ribs and legs, as well as serious damage to her brain. Her life support was turned off over a year later. She spent more than a year in a vegetative state before she died at 14 months on May 27, 2022. Her brain injury was caused due to lack of oxygen (hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy). The court previously heard she was "just breathing", grey in colour and with clear bruising to her jawline when her traumatised mother found the baby. She said that it was not the first time Holford had lost his memory. He had forgotten details of arguments between them.
Dr Jeremy Jones, a paediatric radiologist, said it would require "significant or extreme force" to cause the leg fractures seen on Everleigh, and that they could not happen in normal or rough play-handling of a baby.
Both prosecution and defence accepted the injuries were caused by shaking. Eloise Marshall KC, prosecuting, gestured with her hands the way an expert witness maintained the baby would have been held. She continued: it would be "pretty obvious" that the manner of the hold would result in "really serious harm".
Holford told the court he could not remember what had happened but it was "a sort of blank spot".
Agreeing with his barrister Jo Martin KC that he had lied to police about his cannabis consumption, he added: "I was smoking before I went to bed and throughout the day." Giving evidence to jurors at Canterbury Crown Court, Holford, who was aged 20 at the time of the incident, said he had at least five joints on April 20, 2021.
The defendant insists he is unable to remember what happened to cause Everleigh’s injuries, but accepts that it must have been he that caused them and has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter. "When it suits you, you have a memory – and when it doesn’t suit you, you pretend you don’t have a memory,” Ms Marshall told him. The trial continues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaken_baby_syndrome
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