Toddler died from ‘multiple blunt force injuries’, trial told
Injuries to the jaw of 14-month-old Ihaka Stokes the day before his death were not consistent with a fall while he was in his cot, a doctor told the sixth day of the murder trial of Troy Kevin Taylor.
The doctor, paediatrician Janet Ferguson, gave her opinion to Justice Cameron Mander and the jury in the High Court at Christchurch as the Crown case drew to its close. Evidence has been called from 36 witnesses.
Taylor, 23, denies charges of assaulting the child on July 2, 2015, and murdering him on July 3. The Crown alleges Taylor “lost it” and injured the toddler – the son of his partner Mikala Stokes – after Taylor had suffered the effects of repeated concussions, when he was also sleep deprived.
The defence has accused Miss Stokes of causing the fatal injuries earlier in the day when she was alone with the child. Taylor says the child was already badly injured when he returned home and checked him in his cot during the evening.
Taylor told the police soon after the child’s death that he had gone to check him after hearing a bang from his room on the night before his death, which he thought was the sound of Ihaka falling and hitting a surface in the cot.
The couple took the child to see their GP the following morning.
Dr Ferguson was giving evidence after seeing Ihaka at the hospital on the night he died. She told the trial that the shape of the bruise on the side of the toddler’s jaw was not consistent with any hard surface in the cot.
A neuropathologist, Professor Colin Smith, has earlier given expert evidence by video-link from Britain, that he believed that Ihaka would have become unconscious from his head injuries only minutes after he received them.
He said Taylor’s suggestion of an injury earlier in the day was not consistent with the pathology evident in this case, which pointed to Ihaka going into cardiac arrest soon after the point when the injuries had been received.
The defence would say that Taylor found the child injured when he returned to the house early in the evening, but did not tell the police about that because he was “covering up” for Mikala Stokes, who was alone with the child several hours before his collapse and death.
Taylor is expected to give evidence in the trial. The defence will point to expert evidence that in rare cases, children with severe head injuries can spend several hours conscious before going into cardiac arrest and dying.
Wellington forensic pathologist, Dr Amy Sparks, today told the trial of carrying out a post mortem examination on Ihaka the day after the death. The trial has been told that he had 59 injuries. Dr Sparks said the cause of death was head injuries, and the various injuries were not explainable by a single accidental cause. She considered they were inflicted injuries which she described as “multiple blunt force injuries”.
Category: Focus
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