Baby abuser only deserves a fine – lawyer
The man who had caused Baby L to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair will know his fate on Tuesday.
Baby L is doomed to live her life in a vegetative state, but the Pretoria North businessman responsible for her plight should only get a “stiff fine”, his lawyer argued in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.
Prosecutor Salomé Scheepers submitted the businessman, found guilty of severely abusing the two-year-old daughter of his then girlfriend, should be jailed for at least 10 years for robbing the little girl of a normal life.
The child abuser, who may not be identified to protect the toddler, will know his fate on Tuesday after he was found guilty by Judge Nico Coetzee on Friday of abusing the little girl by hitting her on the head with an object and probably on her stomach with something like a broomstick.
The 20-year-old mother was acquitted on all charges against her – attempted murder, child abuse and failing to render medical assistance to her child. Though she had not paid much attention to her baby, she had not been aware that her boyfriend was abusing the little girl, the judge concluded.
The boyfriend, 37, was also not guilty of attempted murder and of depriving the baby of medical care, but was convicted on a charge of child abuse.
Arguing in mitigation of sentence on Friday, his lawyer, Heinrich Moldenhauer, said a prison sentence was not the appropriate punishment for the divorced father of two. A stiff fine would suffice, he contended.
He said the businessman was close to his two biological children and his son had to receive psychological treatment to help him come to terms with his father’s arrest. The man’s business – installing skylights – had also collapsed after his arrest and the court heard that the man would try to restart the company.
Scheepers said the businessman had shown no remorse at all and deserved to spend time in prison.
“He had robbed Baby L of her life as the little girl now only existed as opposed to being alive,” Scheepers told the court.
Medical testimony in the trial stated that Baby L was so severely brain-damaged by being brutally abused that she would need around-the-clock care for the rest of her life because she could not walk or speak.
Doctors testified that the child, when brought to hospital on 30 December 2013, had injuries to her pancreas, her kidney, had a broken pelvis, had blood in her stomach, water in her lungs and had been covered in old and new bruises.
The doctors said it was not possible to suffer such injuries by falling down a flight of stairs or off a washing machine, as claimed by the boyfriend during the trial. The injuries occurred at an Amandasig flat the couple shared at the time.
Coetzee found that the businessman had abused Baby L between 15 and 30 December 2013 and on the day she had been taken to hospital, had nearly drowned after he had left her in a tub of water by herself for more than an hour.
Also read:
Baba L se belange word deur ‘n gesinsadvokaat omgesien
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