Shaken baby's mum 'thought she had a brain infection'

That day she had brought her five-month-old to Cessnock Hospital looking 'vacant' and limp, saying she'd been fine earlier that morning.

Doctors told her and her husband, the child's father, the baby's injuries included rib fractures, a broken collarbone, a skull fracture, bleeding on the brain, and damage to her spine.

There was evidence of damage to the brain matter, and her bladder wasn't working properly.

"It probably is your worst nightmare," a member of staff at the John Hunter Hospital told the family.

The then 26-year-old father, who can only be identified as 'GP', is on trial after pleading not guilty to a charge of inflict grievous bodily harm with intent following the incident on Saturday, December 12, 2020.

"I don't understand this," the mother said.

"Are there actual medical reasons behind this ... is there any stupid medical reason that can cause anything like this ... there has to be some underlying reason, other than us abusing her ... that has caused this,' the mother said at the time.

She had secretly recorded the conversation which was the first time she and her husband had spoken to medical staff about their daughter's condition after she was transferred to John Hunter Hospital from Cessnock Hospital.

The conversation was played in the Newcastle District court judge-alone trial on Monday.

"We generally do not see ... those illnesses that you are talking about that are real, they don't usually present like this," a social worker told her.

She had been fine that morning, the mother and father said.

"She was even moving at Cessnock Hospital too, which I don't understand," GP said.

"At Cessnock Hospital she was kicking her legs even, and moving her arms."

Later in the conversation, the mother says, 'I know it doesn't look good, but it wasn't us'.

"My biggest thing is it feels like everyone is trying to blame us for what's happened," she said.

And later: "I just get scared that people are going to try and take my kids away from me and stuff."

"There's got to be another reason this is happening. It doesn't make any sense."

Answering questions from Crown prosecutor Jillian Kelton about why she told medical staff that the baby had been moving normally that morning, the mother said that's what GP had told her.

"Because (GP) had told me she was fine that morning until he put her on the change table and then she'd taken a turn for the worse.

"I was shocked. I couldn't believe that she had sustained all of these injuries, and I couldn't fathom without placing blame on anyone how this could have happened to her."

She said she now understood that the injuries were inflicted injuries, but no one had offered an explanation as to how they might have been inflicted.

In a conversation with her psychiatrist, Dr Kim Nguyen, a couple of days later, the mother said that apparently the baby had three fractured ribs that had healed previously.

"We don't even understand how any of this could have happened," she said.

She told the psychiatrist the baby had not been in anyone else's care for about two months.

The trial before Judge Pauline David continues.