The following is as I recall from the moment David met Sandy-

David had to go to Pukerpunal (Victoria) for September, 1998, so told Sandy she and her young son James could live in his house while he was away. On his return he let Sandy and James stay and a relationship developed. In December, when David, Sandy and James came down for Christmas they told Glen and me that Sandy was pregnant. They were overjoyed and because they were happy it made us happy, regardless of the circumstances.

On 17th June, 1999 Glen and I went up to be with David and Sandy for the birth of their baby and help them move house as they were issued an army house because of the pending birth of Baby (not usually allowed by the army for couples living together). David and Sandy were very excited and happy about the pending birth of their baby.

On the morning of 21st June 1999, 6am, David took Sandy in for the birth to the Mater Hospital (it was pre arranged that she have a ceasarian section as she had had a very difficult time with her previous baby, James). She was to have an epidural but this didn't work so she had to have a full general anaesthetic. Glen and I are unaware of the full medical care for both mother and baby.

On the night of 2nd July, 1999, at 3.50am I had a phonecall from David telling me that Baby was critically ill in the Kirwan Womens Hospital so I made arrangements to fly to Townsville on Saturday 3rd July. They had noticed Baby had had diahorrea from birth and on the Thursday of 1st July, they noticed he seemed in pain when moved to change his nappy etc. 

They were considering taking him to the clinic but thought they'd wait another 24 hours to see how he was. On the Friday he seemed OK so they collected Sandy's sister Donna and went to Willows Shopping Centre, to show off their beautiful little boy.  At about 6.30pm David and Sandy (with James 16 months), visited a friend, Rachel

David and Sandy then got a couple of videos and went home. They put James and Baby on a couple of pillows and a blanket on the floor and sat down beside them while they watched videos. At about 10pm they put James to bed and finished watching the video. At about 11pm when the video finished David suggested Sandy get ready to give Baby a feed (she was breast feeding) and he would change Babys' nappy. When he turned Baby to do the nappy change he screamed, which was most uncharacteristic, as he very rarely cried.

He cuddled him to try and console him but to no avail.

Baby then started to lose his breath so David handed him to Sandy who was lying on their bed. Baby then had a small vomit that had blood in it and at that point David and Sandy phoned the ambulance. Sandy took messages from the ambulance and relayed them to David. By the time the ambulance arrived Baby had stopped breathing and his heart had stopped for (David thinks) from 30 seconds to one minute. He was taken to the Mater hospital but because they do not have the correct equipment he was transferred to the Kirwan Womens Hospital.

There were many tests done over that weekend and Baby was given two blood transfusions because "he's had so much blood taken from him." He was heavily sedated (morphine, dilanten are two drugs that come to mind). He also had a lumba puncture on the Saturday and another a couple of days later.

On Monday 5th July he was given a CT Scan and when the results came back an eye doctor checked his eyes for bleeding. After this check, Dr John Whitehall, the Neo Natal Director at the Kirwan Womens Hospital, asked David and Sandy to go to his office (I was usually involved in what was happening but on this occassion I was excluded), along with one of the sisters and a social worker. Dr Whitehall sat them down and said to David and Sandy, "Right, tell me what really happened?" They were totally at a loss as to what he meant, then he said, "Which one of you shook the baby?"

At this point they went to pieces thinking that the doctor believed that they had harmed Baby.

On the Monday night Glen phoned Crisis Care to report what had happened and was told to get legal advise, but Family Services stepped in, along with Juvenile Aid, and began questioning them and telling them that if Baby dies one of them will be charged with murder but if one of them confesses the charge will be reduced to man-slaughter, on the other hand if he survives one of them will be charged with grievous bodily harm. The social worker then said that they would lose their other baby as they didn't feel "comfortable" about allowing him to live in the same house.

Adam, I can't at this point think of anything more - my brain's drained. I will contact you if I can.

Glen and I are ever so grateful for your assistance, as are David and Sandy who at this point are a very frightened young couple.

Kind regards,
Jenny and Glen (Grandparents)