A 41-year-old man faces a sentence of 6 to 12 years in prison for having caused his four-month-old baby serious neurological sequelae, including blindness. Last Monday he was summoned by a Zaragoza court and accepted his right not to testify, denying the facts reported in the car when he was arrested in May 2022.
On that occasion, he acknowledged that he had slapped his son in the face and that he had held him tight by one of his arms, shaking him forcefully. After giving a statement, the judge released him with the express prohibition of not approaching the child.
The attack occurred at dawn, when the mother was working and hours before the defendant began his workday at five in the morning. The baby began to cry and around two o'clock she sent several messages to her partner complaining about crying, telling her that she did not know what to do. The woman gave him some advice and asked for patience, but her father's response was that she had to rest to go to work after a while.
The man went away and left the baby in the care of the grandmother until the mother returned. In her statement, the woman noted that the child was "scared", with a look "lost behind" and leaning on a towel soaked in water.
As soon as the mother got home, she noticed that the little one had some marks on his face, near his ear, on the nape of his neck and on his forehead, and that his gaze was not focused. She immediately picked him up to take him to the hospital and when she told her partner, she told him not to do it because, in her opinion, the law "did not allow lactating mothers to leave their children alone" and they were going to "report both ". Her response was that she had not left him alone, but with her father. When she found out what she had done, she told him to take her things and leave home.
At the hospital they confirmed that the baby suffered serious injuries due to what is known as 'shaken infant syndrome', although it is now recommended to call it 'abusive head trauma'. Specifically, the child had ecchymosis on both cheeks in the auricular pavilion, an injury in the cervical part. Internally, they detected subdural hematomas, severe bilateral hemorrhagic retinoma, and acute encephalopathy with epileptic seizures.
As reported by the Heraldo de Aragón, the little one has a recognized 81% disability (in addition to a psychomotor and maturational delay in relation to children of his age) and a degree of dependence II or severe. He receives attention in the Once and in the Physically Disabled of Aragon for his disability of the neuromuscular system and his visual deficiency. He suffers from blindness in his right eye and high vision loss in his left.
Last March, an indictment was issued against the father as the alleged perpetrator of a crime of serious injury.
