I Came to Say Goodbye

Author:Caroline Overington [Overington, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2010-12-08T11:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

I GUESS YOU KNOW BETTER THAN me what it’s like to be in court, Your Honour. One side gets up and puts their case and it seems like you’re gone for all money, and then your side gets up, and suddenly, there’s hope. That’s what happened in the court case, with Seth. Their side went through the arguments, the injury, and how it must have happened, and how it couldn’t have been an accident, and how the parents must be to blame, then our lawyer got up, and it seemed like the tide was turning.

The first question our lawyer put to Teddy was this one: ‘Do you know for certain that Seth was shaken?’ and of course, Teddy had to say, ‘Well, no, I don’t know for certain, but I believe he was shaken’ and that gave our lawyer a chance to say, ‘But you don’t know for certain, do you?’ and he had to say, ‘No, I don’t, it’s my opinion’ and our lawyer said, ‘But you do know that Seth’s parents say that they absolutely did not shake their baby, don’t you? You know that they say the opposite, that they took their sick baby to hospital for treatment – that is something that good, caring parents would do – and they have had to fight the accusation ever since that they did something to harm their child?’

Teddy said he couldn’t really comment on that, but if our lawyer was asking whether he believed the baby was shaken then the answer was yes, he did.

Our lawyer said, ‘Yes, but you don’t know for certain, do you? Come to that, you don’t know for certain what happens when any parent shakes a baby, do you?’

Teddy looked perplexed. He said, ‘It causes brain damage.’ He said, ‘The baby usually dies, and if the baby doesn’t die, the brain is so badly damaged that there is no quality of life.’

Our lawyer said, ‘But how do you know that? I mean, has anybody – and by anybody, I mean a medical professional or a social scientist – ever taken a group of babies, and shaken some, and not shaken others, to see what happens when you shake a baby?’

Teddy said, ‘Of course not.’

Our lawyer said, ‘Well then, how do you know what happens to the brain when you shake a baby?’ and Teddy said, ‘I’ve looked at scans of babies whose parents have admitted to shaking their babies’ and our lawyer said, ‘And those scans, they are from babies the same age as Seth, are they? The same size? The same weight? They were shaken in the same way? The same number of times? With the same force? By a person with the same strength? Suffering the same level of frustration?’ and of course Teddy said, ‘Well, I can’t be sure about that’ and our lawyer said, ‘No, you can’t, can you. But can you tell this court whether parents ever admit to shaking their babies?’ and Teddy said, ‘Sometimes’ and

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