North Antrim couple on trial for child cruelty

A north Antrim couple have gone on trial accused of inflicting multiple injuries to a very young child, including a fractured skull.

Amanda Fulton and her husband Christopher, who are both 35 and from Rockfield Gardens in Mosside near Ballymoney, are jointly charged with four offences.

They are accused of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, causing or allowing the child to suffer significant physical harm and child cruelty for allegedly wilfully neglecting the child in a manner likely to cause him suffering.

The offences are alleged to have been committed on dates between 5 and 8 November 2019.

The couple face a further charge of child cruelty but it is alleged to have been committed between 17 October and 2 November, before Crown opened their case.

Newry Crown Court heard that when the child was admitted to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, doctors found that he had sustained a fractured skull, associated bleeding on his brain and retinas, a laceration to his liver, almost 30 fractures to his ribs, a fractured wrist and two fractures to each of his legs.

Judge Peter Irvine KC emphasised to the jury the emotive nature of the charges and evidence, adding that they had to set aside any feelings of sympathy or prejudice.

“Such feelings or emotions will not assist you in deciding this case,” he said.

Opening the trial for the prosecution, Toby Hedworth KC told the jury that the child was subjected to significant blunt force trauma by a punch, a closed fist or potentially being thrown or dropped on to a hard surface.

He said he was also subjected to shaking which was violent enough to cause fractures and compression with sufficient force that would fracture multiple ribs.

Mr Hedworth said the prosecution believe one or other of the defendants inflicted the injuries while their co-accused was “in close proximity” and would have known the infant was being harmed but did nothing to intervene.

GP called 999

Mr Hedworth told the court that Mr Fulton rang his GP surgery just after 13:00 GMT on 7 November 2019 to report that the infant “had a raw throat and was not drinking his bottles".

They saw the doctor at 16:10 GMT that afternoon. When the GP noted the child was not responding to physical stimuli and his pupils were not reacting the way they should he called 999.

The child was initially taken to the Causeway Hospital but when doctors discovered that he had a fractured skull and bleeding onto his brain, he was transferred to the intensive care unit at the children’s hospital in Belfast.

It also heard that while all of the injuries “could have been caused accidentally” or have an innocent explanation such as the child being dropped or an adult falling onto the child, “neither Mr nor Mrs Fulton have given any explanation for how any of these injuries could have been sustained".

According to Mr Hedworth, an examination of Mr Fulton’s phone established that at about 01:30 to 01:45 GMT on the night before he contacted the GP, he was searching the internet for “what calms a raw throat in a baby”.

However neither defendant told police about those internet searches and during “extensive police interviews… both denied causing the injuries".

Mr Hedworth said the court would hear evidence from a consultant radiologist and a neurosurgeon as to the timings of the injuries and how they could have been inflicted.

The trial, set to last up to four weeks, continues.