A couple accused of causing a ‘catalogue of serious injuries’ to a baby claimed they were caused by a young child, a jury was told on Monday, November 27, 2023.
When questioned by medical staff at Bedford Hospital, Salma Mughal, 36, said the eight-week-old baby had been dropped by the child.
Her husband Muhammad Usman, 32, later texted her in Urdu saying: “Honey, please don’t change the story,” Luton Crown Court heard.
Usman and Mughal of Chester Road, Bedford deny causing grievous bodily with intent and an alternative charge of allowing a child to suffer serious physical harm between August 31 and October 30, 2020.
Opening the case, prosecutor Martin Mulgrew said the defendants had “inflicted a catalogue of serious injuries on the child.”
Mr Mulgrew said there were “severe fractures to several bones in her body” on her feet, arms hands and fingers.
The couple took the child to A and E at the hospital on 29 October 2020. When questioned at the hospital the mother said another young child had picked up the baby and dropped her. But Mr Mulgrew said a paediatric radiologist would say that all the fractures required excessive force and occurred on seven separate occasions on at least two separate dates.
A consultant paediatrician’s report indicated a minimum of three traumatic events. “Some fractures occurred in a one to two week period before October 29.
Some fractures were in a two to four week period at the end of September and it may be that some were caused as early as six weeks before,” said the prosecutor.
He said the story of the child dropping the baby did not account for the injuries and the force involved meant they could not have been generated by another child.
Both were arrested and interviewed by the police.
In a statement Mughal said the baby was dropped by another child onto a mattress and went floppy.
Usman told the police he was not responsible and said Mughal had told him the child had dropped the baby.
Mr Mulgrew said: “The prosecution say the account by both defendants is an untrue story that they invented to cast blame away from themselves.”
The trial before Mrs Justice Finola O’Farrell is due to last four weeks.
Case proceeding
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