Man murdered child with table leg: court
A man murdered a two-year-old boy by striking him over the head with the metal leg of a lamp table while the child’s mother was at work, a court has heard.
The murder trial of Brendan Pallant, who prosecutors allege killed Jaidyn Gomes-Sebastiao in September 2019, began in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Wednesday.
Mr Pallant has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutor Mark Gibson KC told the jury that Mr Pallant struck Jaidyn with a lamp table in a “short but profound” period of stress and frustration.
Mr Gibson said the accused and Stacie Saggers, Jaidyn’s mother, had met through a mutual friend in early August 2019, with Mr Pallant moving into the Langwarrin rental – where she lived with her two sons – a few days later.
But Mr Gibson said Ms Saggers became concerned over the physical wellbeing of both of her children and in particular Jaidyn.
He told the jury that in late August, Ms Saggers, a self-employed cleaner, found the timber and metal lamp table had fallen over in Jaidyn’s bedroom and that her young son had a bruise under his eye.
On the first of September, Mr Gibson said, she noticed a fresh bruise on Jaidyn once again.
Before leaving for a cleaning job in Tyab on September 2, the day of Jaidyn’s death, Mr Gibson told the jury that Ms Saggers took photographs of both of her sons to use as a reference.
He said that at 1:32pm that day, Ms Saggers sent a Facebook message to Mr Pallant asking about her sons, the initial reply to which only referenced her elder son, Jaidyn’s brother.
Mr Gibson said that in a phone call just over an hour after Ms Sagger’s first message, Mr Pallant told her that Jaidyn was still in bed.
He said the young child’s body was discovered shortly after 4pm that afternoon, when Mr Pallant left the bedroom where he and Ms Saggers had been eating pizza and opened the door to Jaidyn’s bedroom.
Mr Gibson told the jury that paramedics rushed to Mr Saggers’ address, but that the child could not be saved and was confirmed deceased at the scene.
The jury was also told that they would hear evidence that a “radiating fracture” around Jaidyn’s skull was evidence the child’s head was against a hard surface when it was hit.
The trial, before Justice Jane Dixon, continues.
