A medical expert has told a jury that devastating head trauma which killed Workington baby Dallas Kelly, along with other injuries, were consistent with a non-accidental mechanism — a likely cause being forcible shaking.
Reece Kelly, the father of four-month-old Dallas, is on trial at Carlisle Crown Court. Kelly admits manslaughter and that he unlawfully killed the baby, who died on October 19 2021, after unintentionally shaking him, briefly, four days earlier.
But he denies murder and refutes a prosecution claim that he intended to cause his son really serious harm.
Jurors have heard that Dallas died from a traumatic head injury and that he suffered acute brain swelling, bleeds to the brain, severe eye injuries along with multiple rib fractures.
Neuropathologist Dr Daniel Du Plessis gave evidence yesterday having considered these injuries, and told the court that the combination made it virtually certain there was a non-accidental mechanism involved.
The collective finds, he concluded, were further consistent with non-accidental head injury.
A likely cause was forcible shaking of the head on the neck involving extensive oscillation, he further concluded, with the timescale indicative of this occurring while Dallas was in the sole care of his father.
There must have been a significant level of force used to cause fingertip-type marks found on Dallas’s back behind his chest, added the expert.
There was further evidence of two previous serious injuries, to the brain and rib of Dallas, for which no medical treatment had been sought.
Jurors have also now heard the precise basis on which Kelly, formerly of Hunday Court, Workington, admits manslaughter.
In a defence statement, Kelly has recounted being frustrated, of trying to settle Dallas for some time and that the baby would not stop crying.
“The defendant shook him. When he shook Dallas, the defendant was holding Dallas out in front of himself, holding his torso under his arms,” says the statement. “He shook him for seconds only. He did not think it was that hard. He did not mean to hurt him.”
Dallas was then said to have tensed up momentarily prompting Kelly, in his own words, to panic and try to rouse him by shaking him again. He called 999 and carried out CPR as directed by a call handler.
“The defendant did not intent to cause really serious harm to Dallas,” the statement also says. “He did not intend to kill him.”
Dallas’s mum, 23-year-old Georgia Wright, of Workington, is also on trial. Wright denies causing or allowing the baby’s death. Both parents further deny cruelty to Dallas in form of neglect during the months before his death. The trial continues.
