Child minder faces 7 years in prison for shaking baby to death

The Public Prosecutor demanded 7 years in prison against child minder Cora A. the court in Breda on Friday. A. is suspected of shaking a four month old baby to death while he was in her care in 2013, Omroep Brabant reports.

The four month old baby from Oosterhout died in June 2013, one week after being admitted to the hospital. The investigation against Cora A. only closed in the autumn of last year.

The Public Prosecutor believes that A. is guilty of manslaughter. "The baby kept crying, she could not get him to quiet down and somewhere in her something went wrong. I can not draw a different conclusion", the Prosecutor said, adding that A. was the only one in the house at the time. "She must have done it." As the woman was a child minder for years, she knew what the consequences of her actions could be, the Prosecutor believes. 

A. claims she is innocent. According to her version of events, she picked the baby up and his head fell backwards. She thought he was having an epileptic seizure and tried to wake him up by wiping his face with a cold cloth. When that did not work, she shook him - softly, according to her. She called 112 and stayed on the telephone until an ambulance arrived. 

An autopsy revealed that the baby died from bleeding under his brain membrane. Three experts examined the case. Two concluded that the bleeding was caused by shaken baby syndrome. The third concluded that the bleeding could not have been caused by the baby's head falling back, but by a seizure or an injection.

The child's mother believes that Cora A. is innocent. According to her, the bleeding was caused by a vaccination. The baby went for his second round of vaccinations shortly before the incident. The first round left him a little ill, according to the mother. "The truth does not come out because of the pharmaceutical industry", she said in court. "Cora, keep hope. We believe you."

The court will rule on February 10th.