An anguished Aberdeen mother was left to cradle her “floppy” and unresponsive infant daughter following an incident at her babysitter’s house, a court heard.
The child was rushed to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on New Year’s Day 2017 with bleeding on her brain and in her eyes.
Babysitter Syeda Sokina Begum is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of “repeatedly shaking” the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to her “severe injury, permanent impairment and danger of her life”. She denies the charges.
https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/court/aberdeen-babysitter-accused-of-shaking-infant-so-hard-she-bled-from-her-eyes/
Begum, 29, had been employed by the child’s parents for a number of months so they could continue to run their small business.
She was said to have picked up the child from the business at about 3.30pm, but called another member of staff there after 9pm to say something was wrong.
The colleague who received the call and the child’s mother then rushed to the babysitter’s flat in Aberdeen’s Headland Court, where they found the infant unresponsive.
Breaking down in tears, the mum told the court: “She was breathing very heavily and was floppy.
“She never opened her eyes.”
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When asked by Depute Lord Advocate Martin Richardson how she felt, she replied: “I don’t know how to express it.”
Defence agent Frances Connor alleged that Begum had previously confronted the parents about the child’s health, saying the infant’s hands and feet were “always freezing”.
The medical examiners, who worked to save the baby’s life in the crucial hours after the alleged incident, are expected to give evidence to the jury in the coming days.
The trial, before Lord Uist, continues.
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