A father who insisted he had ‘nothing to hide’ after his newborn son died has been found guilty of manslaughter and criminal neglect.
Ashley John McGregor, 34, and Rebecca Denton presented at Adelaide’s Noarlunga Hospital early on April 23, 2021, with their son, Alvin, ‘completely unresponsive’.
The baby boy was born just weeks earlier on April 4.
On Friday, Judge Paul Muscat found McGregor guilty of manslaughter and criminal neglect and set his sentencing for next month.
The court heard that McGregor was left to look after Alvin while Denton went shopping on April 21.
She received a panicked call that afternoon from McGregor claiming he had accidentally knocked over the bassinet Alvin was in.
The baby was heard ‘hysterically’ crying and Denton rushed home.
Little Alvin’s condition drastically deteriorated over the next 40 hours and he was unresponsive by the time his parents took him to Noarlunga Hospital two days later.
A post-mortem on Alvin found blunt cerebral trauma to be the cause of his death.
The newborn had suffered rib fractures, bruising, head injuries and haemorrhages to the retinas.
Judge Muscat said he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt McGregor had inflicted the severe injuries by tightly squeezing Alvin around the chest and either shaking or throwing him, possibly causing him to strike a hard surface.
During McGregor’s trial, the court heard an interview between him and police in which officers claimed Alvin’s injuries indicated he was ‘violently shaken’.
‘It’s very similar to what you’d expect … in a high-impact car crash,’ the officer said.
McGregor claimed Alvin was injured when he knocked over the bassinet but the father decided not to take the baby to hospital because ‘he settled’.
‘Maybe we should have taken him to hospital, we should’ve been, like, more cautious,’ McGregor said.
‘I’ve got nothing to hide, I want to know what happened to him.’
The judge determined McGregor attacked the baby in the 10 minutes between calling Denton and her arriving home.
‘I find he did so because he was unable to deal with Alvin crying for 10 minutes,’ Judge Muscat said, the Adelaide Advertiser reported.
‘I find this resulted in the defendant losing control of his emotions and reacting inappropriately and instantly through his frustration in not being able to settle Alvin’s crying.’
Judge Muscat added McGregor was guilty of criminal neglect as he failed to take Alvin to hospital, in spite of his obvious distress.
‘He failed to seek timely medical care for Alvin,’ he said.
Judge Muscat previously accepted Denton’s evidence that she did not inflict the horrific injuries on Alvin.
The mother last year was sentenced to four years jail after pleading guilty to criminal neglect, also for failing to get Alvin timely medical attention.
She was ordered to serve her sentence in home detention.
McGregor remains in custody ahead of sentencing submissions next month.