3:13pm Saturday 21st November 2009
JURORS heard evidence via satellite from a doctor in Australia concerning the baby at the centre of an alleged cruelty case.
Dr Reynella Morenas took the oath on TV screens before the court in Southampton in the case against the child’s parents Luke Lock and Charmain Rippon.
Lock, 21, of Albert Road South, is accused of inflicting grievous injuries on his fivemonth- old son that left him hospitalised. He had suffered multiple rib fractures as well as haemorrhaging in the brain and behind the eyes that is consistent with being violently shaken.
His former partner Rippon, 23, of Wavell Road in Bitterne, is alleged to have covered for Lock and been cruel to her child in neglecting to intervene.
Dr Morenas, a former specialist paediatric registrar from Southampton General Hospital, told how she was working when Rippon arrived with her son who was being sick regularly.
Asked by prosecutor Christopher Parker QC what she saw, Dr Morenas said the child presented with no fever and no evidence of a rash but he looked tired like he had a cold, with sunken eyes.
“The most abnormal finding was that of a faint bruise on the right side of his cheek, below the corner of the mouth. There was no other bruising or injuries.”
Cross examined by Nigel Pascoe QC, defence barrister for Lock, Dr Morenas said she saw nothing to suggest the baby had pain in the chest area or that he had suffered broken ribs. His eye movements and pupils were both normal.
Lock faces two counts of causing grievous bodily harm, inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a charge of child cruelty. Rippon faces two counts of child cruelty through neglect and exposing the baby to unnecessary suffering.
Proceeding
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