A babysitter broke down in tears yesterday as she was found guilty of shaking an infant in her care, leaving the child “floppy and blue”.
Syeda Begum, 29, was found guilty by majority at the High Court in Aberdeen, after two hours and 10 minutes of deliberation.
Begum had called the parents of the child she was looking after on the evening of New Year’s Day, 2017, to tell them something was wrong.
Aberdeen doctors feared baby had been deliberately harmed the moment she was taken to hospital
The “floppy and blue” baby was rushed to hospital in a critically ill condition and doctors found she had bleeding on her brain and was bleeding from her eyes.
The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, spent nearly a fortnight in hospital.
Earlier this week, Advocate depute Martin Richardson said that prior to 9.10pm on the evening of the incident, the baby had been healthy and normal – but after 9.37pm, the baby was found to have “intracranial bleeding” and “both eyes had suffered from retinal haemorrhage”.
During the two-week trial, medical professionals were called as witnesses and provided evidence suggesting the injuries could not have been a result of an everyday domestic accident, or related to a previous medical condition.
They said the injuries were consistent with the baby being shaken – likely just once but also with some force.
Defence advocate Frances Connor had told the jury Begum was a normal, mild-mannered individual who cared deeply for the child in question and had never shown any signs of mental health issues.
She argued there was no evidence she had snapped under pressure, or that she was “prone to violence or taking her temper out on tiny babies”.
Ms Connor had also argued the baby’s injuries could have been the result of other conditions and proposed that medical science does not understand everything about the young brains.
Begum, of Aberdeen, had denied the charge of assault to severe injury and danger of life.
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By a majority, jurors disagreed.
Addressing the 29-year-old after the verdict had been read to the court, Lord Uist said: “You have been convicted by the jury of assaulting a baby by shaking her by the body to her severe injury and to the danger of her life.”
Lord Uist said he took into consideration that Begum had no previous convictions and allowed bail.
But before the tearful Begum left the court building he added: “Nothing should be inferred from the fact that I am continuing bail about what he likely sentence is to be for this crime.”
Sentence has been deferred until April.
