A Dunfermline woman attempted to murder a five-month-old baby in a shaking attack and tried to blame the child’s mother for the crime.
Kimberly Dow inflicted potentially life-threatening injuries on the defenceless infant when she was supposed to be looking after him.
Dow, 34, of Maitland Street, Dunfermline, denied committing the murder bid during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh and lodged a special defence of incrimination, naming the boy’s mother.
Advocate depute Michelle Brannagan told jurors: “There is only evidence of one single occasion when he suffered injury and that was… when he was in Kimberly Dow’s care.”
Dow she was found guilty of assaulting the child on March 17 2022 by shaking him, inflicting trauma to his head and causing injury to his head by means unknown to the prosecutor to his severe injury and danger of life and attempting to murder him at her home.
The child and his mother cannot be identified for legal reasons.
15 distinct facial wounds
The court heard when the baby was taken to hospital after the attack 15 distinct and separate bruises were seen on his face.
He was also found to retinal haemorrhages in both eyes, which an experienced paediatric opthalmologist described as too numerous to count.
The baby was also discovered to have significant haemorrhaging around the brain and expert evidence indicated the blood was so extensive and on so many areas of the brain it was likely he suffered a prolonged period of shaking.
The brain injuries were so severe it could have led to the child’s death, the court heard.
Ms Brannagan told the court: “I suggest an overwhelming picture comes into painfully sharp focus.
“This was no accident. Someone hurt him.”
‘Red herring’ couch fall claim
The prosecutor said all the evidence suggested the child was uninjured and behaving completely normally when he was dropped off at Dow’s home.
She said there was not “a single piece of evidence” to support the incrimination claim and added: “In fact I didn’t hear any evidence in this trial to indicate that (the mother) had caused any injury to her son.
“It is a red herring.”
Dow claimed she put the child on a couch and left briefly but when she returned he was on the floor and had fallen.
In one message she said the child had an accident and fell and “gave himself a sore one”.
Dow previously cared for child
The mother of the child said had no issues or concerns after Dow previously looked after him when she and her mother contracted Covid.
She said: “He came back his normal wee self – happy and content.”
She said on this occasion Dow phoned her and asked if she could take him for the night.
She said she tried and failed to make contact with Dow after she left her son in her care but later heard the claim that he fell off a couch.
She then received a message telling her to hurry up to come for the child as he was screaming and “tensing” his body.
The mother said in her evidence Dow tried to apologise to her when they met.
Remanded pending sentence
Dow was on bail during her trial but was remanded in custody following the verdict.
Sentence was deferred for the preparation of a background report.
The trial judge, Lady Ross, said: “I am satisfied given the seriousness of the offence and the expectation of a custodial sentence that the appropriate course is to revoke bail and remand her in custody.”
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