A South Australian man has been sentenced to four years in prison after he ‘snapped’ and shook his baby last year.
When interviewed by police, Brandon Lee Harris, 22, admitted to shaking his son twice for about to or three seconds.
The incident occurred in May, 2018 when Harris was trying to settle his son who was less than six weeks old.
Taking him to the doctor, Harris explained that his son was ‘breathing funny’. He was also found to have dilated pupils, irregular breathing and a bruise on his wrist.
The baby was then taken to hospital where he was placed on emergency neo-natal resuscitation and suffered seizures.
While Harris initially suggested that the boy may have injured himself during a feed, he later admitted to police he had shaken his son twice because he wouldn’t settle during the night.
The boy has been left with brain damage, severe spastic quadriplegia, epilepsy and blindness.
Speaking at a pre-sentencing hearing earlier this month, the court heard Harris ‘snapped’ when trying to settle his young son in the early hours of May 22, 2018.
Prosecutor Patrick Dawes said that the child’s development has effectively frozen. ‘He now has the functioning of a 12-week old baby and yet a year of his life has elapsed,’ he added.
‘[The boy’s] life will be severely diminished,’ he said. ‘It is certainly not the case that he is going to live until a happy adult life.’
The court also heard that before shaking his son, Harris had also dropped him on the floor, causing a fracture to his collarbone.
Harris pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated recklessly causing serious harm to his own child and was jailed for four years with a non-parole period of 18 months.
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