A three-month-old girl, whose father stands charged with seriously injuring her, has been returned to her mother by order of the court.
Daniel Grech, 26, a soldier with the Armed Forces of Malta, is pleading not guilty to seriously injuring his daughter when he shook her violently.
Magistrate Neville Camilleri heard that Mr Grech told the police during questioning that he had shaken his daughter, Amy, in a bid to bring her under control during a fit.
It emerged later that the baby’s fit was a result of a fractured skull and subsequent brain haemorrhage.
The child was rushed to hospital on July 16 and was initially in critical condition.
She was flown to Mater Dei Hospital by helicopter to receive further care.
Doctors testified that the fractures to the child’s skull did not show up immediately in the X-rays but a CT scan revealed the true extent of her injuries.
The doctor who examined her first at Gozo General Hospital, consultant paediatrician Simon Mifsud, said that, apart from bruising, there was nothing that could explain the fits.
He said the baby had bruises on her shoulder, her back, her tummy, her ribs and on her forehead. She also had two linear bruises on her buttocks.
There was another large bruise on her right temple, which was swelling up and was getting darker fast, so after administering emergency treatment he sent her for a CT scan on suspicion that she had a brain haemorrhage.
Magistrate Camilleri decreed yesterday that the child be released to her mother following hospital treatment.