A TRIAL HAS heard that a five month old girl had bleeding in the brain, a fractured collar bone and bruising to her face and body when she was taken to Cork University Hospital (CUH) by her parents.

A 31-year-old man is on trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court charged with three offences.

The child’s father, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is charged with causing serious harm to her on 4 January 2021.

He is also charged with assault causing harm to the girl between 25 November and 15 December 2020 and with wilfully assaulting or ill-treating the child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering to the child’s health or seriously affect the child’s wellbeing.

The accused denies all charges.

Prosecution senior counsel Jane Hyland gave the jury an outline of the evidence they will hear in the case.

She said that the injuries the girl suffered included bruising to her face, stomach, abdomen and buttock as well as a fractured collar bone, an injury to deep soft tissue under the spine and blood on the surface of the brain and bleeding behind the eyes.

It is alleged that the girl sustained the injuries while she was in the care of her father at her family home.

Hyland said that jurors would hear evidence from an employee of a crèche who noticed a bruise on the young girl’s cheek on a date in December 2020.

The Prosecution case is that a grandmother of the child paid a visit to the family home on 4 January 2021 and noticed the child was very upset and tired.

Her parents brought her to a GP service who then sent her to hospital. She was seen by a paediatrician at Cork University Hospital. (CUH)

Hyland said that the father of the child was interviewed by a social worker in hospital. It is claimed that he told the social worker that he had accidentally dropped the little girl at home.

He allegedly later stated that he had shaken her.

Meanwhile, Consultant Opthamalogist, Dr Sarah Moran said that she found extensive haemorrhage at the front of the retina, within the retina and underneath the retina in both eyes of the child

Moran said that the injury was “highly suggestive” of shaken baby syndrome.

She said she was of the opinion that the injury could not have been sustained in an accidental fall as such a level of bleeding was usually only seen in high velocity impacts such as car accidents.

Moran added that she had concerns that there could be long lasting visual damage arising out of the retinal bleeding.

Dr Moran said that she was of the belief that the retinal injuries constituted serious harm as they were so severe that they had the propensity to cause permanent sight damage.

It was impossible to measure the extent of the damage of such retinal bleeds in such a young child, Moran said. However, she is sure it will impact on her sight.

“There is no way that the vision from the centre of the eye was not affected by the level of macular retinal haemorrhage … there is no doubt but with that level of bleeding in the centre of the eye that the function of the eye was affected,” Moran added.

The case will continue tomorrow before a jury of seven women and five men. The case will be presided over by Judge Dermot Sheehan.