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Father 'shook or threw baby'
  

Ken McGregor, Court Reporter
AdelaideNow
May 19, 2010
 

A FATHER "shook or threw" his infant son with so much force that it caused partial blindness and permanent brain damage, a court has heard.

Philip Edward Clarke, 29, has pleaded not guilty to one count each of aggravated recklessly causing serious harm and criminal neglect over the incident at his Ingle Farm house in 2006.

Opening the District Court trial, prosecutor Ian Press said Clarke may have shook his three month-old son because his crying had "gotten on his nerves" while he was watching television.

"It may well be the defendant became angry because (the baby) would not settle, he may have gotten on his nerves," Mr Press said.

"He may have become frustrated because his crying interrupted him watching television."

Mr Press said expert evidence will show the baby's injuries must have occurred while Clarke was alone with the baby in the early hours of the morning.

"The severity and extensiveness of the injuries would have immediately altered (the baby's) state of consciousness ... as soon as those injuries were suffered by him."

He said the baby was healthy when his mother had fed him hours earlier, leaving Clarke as the only possible culprit.

He said brain scans had shown the baby had also suffered another brain injury earlier in its life.

Davis Stokes, for Clarke, asked the jury to consider whether the prosecution could prove "beyond reasonable doubt if the accused was the perpetrator."

He said the question of when the baby's injuries occurred will be an important issue in the trial.

Criminal neglect charges were initially laid against the baby's mother but were later dropped.

The baby's mother is expected to give evidence later in the trial
 

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