Shaken baby's mother admits to lying 'to avoid coming under suspicion'

She lied about being a cannabis user, and she lied to police saying she never got frustrated with her five-month-old baby.

Police interviewed the 29-year-old woman the day after her baby girl was admitted to hospital with injuries including a fractured skull, two broken ribs, bleeding on the brain, and loss of all movement and sensation in her lower limbs.

Under cross-examination in the Newcastle District Court on Tuesday, she admitted she deliberately lied to police to protect herself from coming under suspicion.

The infant's father, who can only be identified as GP, is on trial after pleading not guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on the baby who was admitted to hospital on December 12, 2020.

Defence barrister Paul Rosser, KC, asked the mother about text messages she sent in August, 2020.

She was texting the baby's father that night while he was at work, saying: "I am depressed because I don't get any sleep, the kids are f--kwits".

"I am ready to lose it, honestly, I am ready just to throw her outside ..."

"I am leaving, f--k (the baby), f--k everything".

"We already know that when you were with police you were unwilling to tell them about any frustration with (the baby)," Mr Rosser asked her.

"You deliberately lied about that," Mr Rosser said, to which she replied ''Yes''.

"To avoid yourself coming under suspicion," Mr Rosser said.

"Yes."

Other messages from the same night read: "All she wants to do is stay awake and hang off me and I don't want to be near her. I don't want to deal with her carry on. I don't want to be a mum anymore. I'm sure I've made that clear enough"; and " DOCS FACS whatever can take 'em"

"I'm gonna tell them I'm suicidal and I can't handle my kids and I'm going to neck myself if they don't take 'em".

"You were certainly frustrated with (the baby) that night." Mr Rosser asked.

"Yes".

"And you've tried to hide that from the court," he asked, to which she also replied, "Yes".

Giving evidence on Monday, the mother said no one had explained to her how the injuries might have been inflicted.

During the recorded police interview, played in court on Tuesday, police said the injuries to the baby's fractured ribs were "quite possibly from someone squeezing with their hands", while the head injuries - a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain, was "from a shake".

"From being violently shaken," police said.

The mother asked if those injuries could have been caused by throwing the baby up in the air, and catching her.

"Can throwing them up in the air and catching them do something like that," she asked.

"That's just something we've always done with both our girls ... like, I didn't think it was a bad thing."

When police asked if she had thought that was safe, considering the age of the baby, she said "Probably not".

"I've told him just to be careful," she said in the interview

Did it concern you that he was doing that, police conducting the interview asked her, to which she said: "Yeah, I just didn't want him to drop her."

Police later informed her that the baby girl had also suffered a broken rib at a separate time to the acute injuries which had brought her to hospital the day before

"Do you know what that means," police asked her.

"It means there's been more than one incident that has caused these injuries."

The mother, who became upset, crying throughout the interview, said she felt as though she and the baby's father were being blamed, but that doctors should be looking for a medical cause for her daughter's injuries.

The trial, before Judge Pauline David, continues.