Father convicted of manslaughter in shaken baby case

A Tel Aviv district court convicted a father of manslaughter and child abuse Thursday for shaking his infant son, which resulted in the child’s death two years ago.

Police opened an investigation in 2012 against the parents of four-month-old twins, a boy and girl, after the infants were hospitalized with bruising, multiple bone fractures and brain hemorrhaging. The son died a week later, while the daughter’s condition was stabilized shortly after her arrival.

After the death of the boy, a committee at Sheba Medical Center investigated the circumstances and determined that he died from injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome.

The parents of the twins claimed that the injuries were sustained by their infants due to a rare genetic illness and were not a result of intentional shaking or abuse.

The mother was absolved of responsibility and the probe against her was subsequently closed, after which she regained custody of her daughter.

“There is no doubt that the hemorrhaging was not caused by a preexisting illness,” wrote Judge Zvi Gerfinkel in the 150-page verdict handed down Thursday. While reading the verdict, Gerfinkel said that the father likely acted out of stress or frustration, and did not intend to fatally injure his children.

Shaken baby syndrome, also called abusive head trauma, is a term used to describe serious brain injury that results from shaking a young child, usually by a caregiver overwhelmed by a crying baby. When an infant’s head is shaken back and forth, the brain is bruised and begins to swell, resulting in brain hemorrhaging and sometimes lifelong disabilities or death.

Following the incident, Health Ministry Director Dr. Hertzel Levy urged hospital staff to increase their awareness of the characteristic injuries associated with shaken baby syndrome, and requested that parents be educated on the dangers of head trauma.