Hamilton District Court Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Warning: This contains content about injuries to a baby which may upset some readers.
A newborn baby needed part of her skull removed after being injured by a teenager who claims he tripped and fell while holding her.
But, instead of getting immediate help for the 17-day-old girl, her mother returned home to find Taine Davey holding her while he played PlayStation. He then went outside and started setting up a trampoline.
On Wednesday the now 20-year-old was jailed on a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard.
The court heard the little girl is now approaching her third birthday but currently presents as a "4 to 6-month-old baby with significant functional and visual impairments".
Davey's explanation about what happened on the afternoon of 12 May, 2021, didn't wash with Hamilton District Court Judge Arthur Tompkins, who pressed defence counsel Aaron Dooney on the "false narrative" of what happened, along with the several-hour delay before the baby was taken to Waikato Hospital.
Dooney accepted it was a "non-accidental injury" caused by his client and that the discount for remorse could be lost.
'Neck flexed, rotated rapidly, repetitively'
The baby was only 17 days old when she was critically injured by Davey in emergency motel accommodation at the Fountain City Motor Inn, on Hamilton's Ulster St.
Davey refuses to reveal exactly what happened, but court documents state he "used force on the victim causing her neck to flex, extend and rotate rapidly, likely repetitively, resulting in the victim suffering severe trauma to her head and neck".
The injuries led to the victim suffering seizures and turning pale.
The baby's mother returned to the motel at 4.43pm to find him holding her while playing his PlayStation 4. He didn't tell her what happened and instead put her back to sleep in her pepe pod, mentioning that she was cold and looked pale.
He continued to check on the victim as she slept over the next two hours while putting together a trampoline.
The mother realised the baby was overdue for a feed and at 6.43pm found her pale, cold, and with a swollen head and bruising to her face and above her eye.
She phoned her midwife who told her to take her to hospital where she underwent emergency surgery to have part of her skull removed to relieve the pressure on her brain due to "severe bleeding".
She was then airlifted to Starship Hospital's paediatric intensive care unit.
The victim had an "extremely poor prognosis" and was expected to die but survived and now had significant neuro-cognitive impairments along with a "limited life expectancy and a risk of ongoing seizures".
Dooney pushed for multiple discounts, including for guilty pleas - albeit late and five months before trial - his youth, remorse, and his previous good character as he did not have any convictions.
The judge questioned Dooney about his client's remorse, given Davey's narrative about what happened, and ultimately labelled the delay in getting the baby to hospital as a "deliberate concealing of the sequence of events leading to the injuries".
The judge also expressed concern that some of Davey's family had adopted the "false narrative".
"Here it's concerning also given the adoption of that false narrative by some at least of the defendant's family support."
Dooney accepted remorse discount could be affected but urged the judge to hand down a home detention sentence.
Crown solicitor Rebecca Guthrie said the victim could not have been more vulnerable given both her age and inability to defend herself.
Davey's version of events flew in the face of expert evidence which stated a fall would not cause such severe injuries to a baby.
The offending was aggravated by Davey's delay in seeking medical treatment, and even then, he didn't disclose to medical staff what he'd done.
'Hard to envisage a more vulnerable victim'
Judge Tompkins took a start point of four years' jail before applying 35 percent worth of discounts, arriving at an end jail term of two and a half years.
"It's hard to envisage a more vulnerable and more defenceless victim.
"The targeting of the baby's head and neck area which in these circumstances is particularly dangerous given a 17-day-old baby does not have a fully developed skull.
"She now requires full-time oversight and assistance for all aspects of her daily life."
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.