PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Doctors also diagnosed ‘abusive head trauma’, the term that replaced shaken baby syndrome. The paediatrician showed the parents the x-ray and asked them to explain the fractures. “Did you or your husband hit the baby?” she asked. They couldn’t believe what was happening. The couple are both in tears when they recall this time in hospital. “They were questioning us about the injury. How did the injury happen? And they are pointing the finger at us that we are the ones who have brought about this intensive injury on her,” says Ravi. “Why would we hit our precious baby?” the couple told the doctor. “We would not hit our baby. She is very precious to us.” Overwhelmed, confused and sick with worry for their daughter, the parents repeated over and again they didn’t know what could have caused the injuries. “We are very good parents, we were taking her to the doctors, to the Plunket as and when required, making sure that everything was going really well with her development. She was flourishing. She had no marks on the body, there was no signs of any neglect or injury being inflicted.” Less than 24 hours after arriving at Starship, the pediatrician told them she considered it to be a case of non-accidental injury."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "One evening, a year on from that first day in hospital and 10 months after Zita and Ravi had last heard from police, a team of officers arrived on their doorstep without warning, arrested the couple, separated them and put them in the overnight cells. Zita was charged with injuring with intent to injure or with reckless disregard, wounding with intent to injure or with reckless disregard, and ill-treatment or neglect of a child. Ravi was charged with ill-treatment or neglect of a child. They were released on bail on the condition they didn’t have any contact with each other, so immediately had to find separate places to live. Now, not only did they not have their baby, they no longer had each other. Just as they thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, they did."
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STORY: "A controversial conviction and a family devastated," by Investigative Reporter Bonnie Sumnner, on January 13, 2025.
"In our latest in-depth podcast investigation, Fractured, Melanie Reid and her team delve deep into a complex case involving a controversial medical diagnosis and its fallout on a young family.
While Fractured is a forensic examination of this case here in New Zealand, the diagnosis that started it all is now being blamed for putting hundreds of innocent parents behind bars worldwide – and is fast becoming a medical scandal of international proportions.
Read part one, part two and part three of our three-part series written to accompany our podcast Fractured.
Three years ago, a young immigrant mother living in Auckland was convicted of intentionally hurting her infant daughter. At the woman’s sentencing, the judge described the medical evidence as “overwhelming”.
During her three-week trial, four doctors from Starship Hospital told the jury the injuries her newborn baby had suffered were non-accidental and “abusive head trauma”, the rebranded term that replaced “shaken baby syndrome”.
No expert medical witnesses appeared for the mother’s defence. She was found guilty and sent to prison for two years and seven months. She has always maintained she did not, and would not ever, hurt her daughter.
The pediatrician from Starship Hospital’s child abuse unit who diagnosed the then eight-week-old baby’s injuries as non-accidental did so less than 24 hours after the baby had been admitted to hospital, and since that moment In the intervening years, the little girl has been placed in four different foster homes. Oranga Tamariki, New Zealand’s child welfare agency, has not allowed her father – who has no convictions – to regain custody of his child, despite his repeated requests.
Oranga Tamariki has also secured an order to keep the girl in New Zealand under the care of the state while her parents face deportation back to their home country.
Newsroom’s investigations editor Melanie Reid and her team have been meticulously investigating this case for Newsroom’s podcast, Fractured, with the first nine-episode season available to listen to on podcast channel DELVE.
But while investigating the plight of this family here in New Zealand, a storm has been brewing overseas. The Fractured case has now joined a growing worldwide medical scandal.
History of a hypothesis
The shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma hypothesis was first touted in the 1970s by British neurosurgeon, Dr Arthur Norman Guthkelch, and then promulgated by pediatric radiologist John Caffey.
It describes ‘the triad’ – when an infant presents with a combination of brain swelling, bleeding on the surface of the brain and retinal haemorrhaging – to be definitive of shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma, said to occur when a baby or infant has been forcefully shaken.
However, Guthkelch later acknowledged that birth injuries, minor accidents and natural disease processes could also cause the symptoms attributed to shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma, calling them “simply hypotheses, not proven medical or scientific facts”.
In 2014 the Swedish government commissioned a two-year scientific study on shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma, which concluded the evidence base for it was “insufficient”, “unreliable” and based on “circular reasoning and not scientific criteria”.
Since 1992, at least 34 people in the US have been exonerated in cases related to shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma, with a US judge in one case calling it “junk science”, and that “no study has ever validated the hypothesis that shaking a child can cause the triad of symptoms” associated with the syndrome – a decision later upheld by an appellate court.
In the latest case to hit the headlines, US man Robert Roberson was set to become the first person in the United States to be executed on the basis of a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis, until a last-minute reprieve by the Texas Supreme Court in October last year.
Reid and her investigations unit have engaged several top international medical experts for the upcoming second season of Fractured, who variously describe shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma as a “default diagnosis”, “factitious” and a “facile diagnosis”.
Former New Zealand Human Rights and Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres is supporting the family at the centre of this case in New Zealand and says the situation is a “nightmare”.
“It’s a complex story of dealings with many authorities in a context extremely difficult and often bewildering and discouraging to navigate.”
On the face of it, this case looks like another addition to the appalling roll call of children in New Zealand who have been hurt at the hands of those who were meant to be caring for them.
However, de Bres believes it is the opposite. He told Newsroom this family has been caught in the crossfire of a controversial medical diagnosis that has been hotly debated for more than five decades.
“At the heart of this is the shuttered view of the medical experts. The medical evidence [in this case] is underwhelming. It is circumstantial and speculative. And I don’t think the convictions are safe.
“A number of the people that I have spoken with in the past have talked to me about Starship; that it is transfixed on shaken baby syndrome and therefore it’s almost a set piece – once they see certain things: guilty.”
He says the result is a family left pulverised by a wall of government bodies. “This whole family has been separated by the state.”
The interview
The woman at the centre of this case, who we call Zita, had only been released from prison a matter of weeks when Reid sat down with her and her husband, Ravi, on a rainy Saturday morning at an immaculately tidy South Auckland house.
Zita lives here not with her husband, but with her two younger siblings. An electronic bracelet sits snug around her ankle, the outward sign of her next stage of imprisonment.
Being under supervision is something she’s had to endure for more than five years, ever since her baby was uplifted by Oranga Tamariki as a 10-week-old and put into foster care after Starship Hospital diagnosed her with injuries it says were non-accidental.
“It’s hard to manage. I need to give her the love that she missed out from the last few years. But I can’t do that because I’m not allowed to see her,” Zita says through tears.
Now out of prison, she faces imminent deportation.
(Under New Zealand law, it is standard practice for people convicted of serious criminal offences to be deported to their country of origin after a prison term.)
And because her husband Ravi’s visa is dependent on his wife’s, he also faces deportation.
The softly spoken father of the baby uses an interpreter to help explain how the hopes and dreams of a new life in a new country turned into a slow-motion train wreck within a few short months, with the couple forced to fight a brick wall of state organisations that include New Zealand’s medical establishment, the judiciary, police, Oranga Tamariki, Immigration, Corrections and numerous appeal bodies.
“I came here for a better future, a better future for my family, to grow myself here, find a better job, and make a happy life here,” he says, “Now we are living as if we are dead.”
Their story begins in 2014 when a young go-getter from India’s Punjab region arrived in New Zealand on a student visa to undertake a graduate diploma in business.
She had high hopes of building a life for herself in New Zealand. “It was my dream to come here.”
The young woman was a popular student and made lasting friendships. She passed her exams with flying colours and was granted an open graduate job search visa. When she found work in a restaurant everything seemed to be on track.
After being promoted to manager, she flew back to India to become a bride. More than 1000 people attended their elaborate Hindu wedding. Zita returned to New Zealand first and would video call with Ravi for hours every day until he finally secured a visa and they were able to begin their lives together.
Zita’s English is more fluent than her husband’s. Before serving us a generous lunch they had prepared for our visit, she shows photos on her phone of their wedding. The couple look proud, joyful, fresh-faced.
Today Ravi stares into the distance, and Zita breaks down whenever she tries to talk about everything that’s happened.
They are different people now. What’s happened has broken them.
A new arrival
In 2018, Zita and Ravi were overjoyed to welcome the arrival of their daughter three weeks early. In this story we will call her Baby K.
The birth was long, painful and difficult, but with the help of an epidural, forceps, ventouse suction and an episiotomy, Baby K was born. She weighed in the lowest tenth percentile but appeared healthy, with the exception of a note from the doctor of a ‘clicky hip’, and the couple soon settled into their new lives as a family in their Auckland flat where they lived with Zita’s two younger brothers.
The midwife made numerous visits and was very satisfied about mother and baby’s health. Baby K was gaining good weight.
The midwife would later say Baby K, “always looked alert, there was no nappy rash, and they told me they bathed her every day, which I told them wasn’t necessary with newborns. The baby had new baby clothes which were always clean and she seemed well cared for, with both parents appearing to share parenting duties.”
Zita says their baby girl was the first grandchild born into their families, “So she’s very precious to us in our culture. We believe that she’s a goddess.”
Over the next two months the parents doted on their daughter and did everything their midwife, Plunket nurse, Plunket health worker and GP recommended. Baby K had all her routine six-week vaccinations, her Wellchild book was kept up to date and she was meeting her milestones. Ravi would give her gentle oil massages according to Hindu tradition, known as malish.
The couple are both from observant Hindu families and follow many of the cultural and religious traditions.
Baby K appeared to be thriving, breastfeeding normally and none of the professionals who assessed the newborn over that time noticed anything amiss. Zita frequently video-called her family in India to show them Baby K, and both of Zita’s brothers who lived at the home never noticed anything unusual.
When their baby was seven weeks old she began to fuss so the parents made an appointment with their doctor, who diagnosed colic and prescribed Gaviscon and Panadol, which they gave her.
Ravi had secured a work visa by this point and began night shifts at a new job. A week later was Diwali, one of the most celebrated festivals on the Indian calendar.
Ravi went shopping with his sister and helped prepare meals at the local temple in a form of service called seva. The parents planned to go to the temple as a family for their first Diwali together.
But on the morning of the festival they had an argument. Zita wanted to clean the house before they left, but Ravi wanted to visit the temple and clean afterwards.
“I said, we do cleaning and then we go temple and then we don’t need to come back when we’re tired and do the cleaning at that time. But he said, no, I will do later on. I said, no, we do it now. But he get upset. And he said, okay, I’m going alone to temple then. So he went to temple and on the way he put his phone on airplane mode,” Zita told Newsroom.
This seemingly innocuous disagreement set the stage for a cascade of misery.
Rushed to hospital
Very upset with her husband, Zita tried to call him. She hit redial repeatedly and made a succession of calls, all of which went straight to voicemail, and finally threatened self-harm in a text message if he didn’t call her back.
“I know that’s not right. It’s just to get his attention so he can at least check on his phone. If he’s not getting calls, he might get the text,” she explained.
She says she was feeling under stress about their argument and about him not answering her calls but she messaged about hurting only herself and reiterated she would never hurt her baby.
“I so regret sending this message which I sent only so to get his attention.”
When he finally checked his phone, he saw her text and called his wife right away. They made up over the phone and while talking to her husband Zita breastfed Baby K. Satisfied everything was back to normal, Ravi continued his seva before returning home later that day.
They celebrated Diwali and video-called with family and friends, proudly showing off their baby girl in her new outfit. One of Zita’s brothers was home and said Baby K appeared normal. Everyone was happy. A neighbour called by with a Diwali gift, then Ravi headed off for his night shift at his job.
When he returned in the morning, Baby K was asleep in her bassinette. Zita had breastfed her around 7am and baby had fallen back to sleep. She awoke again three hours later and began crying.
It sounded much louder than usual, and she seemed to be gasping for air. Zita tried breastfeeding, but Baby K continued to cry. At first, they thought it could be the colic returning, but her condition worsened so they rushed her to the medical centre where Baby K was seen by a nurse and then a doctor.
Alarmed she was having convulsions, and with a case of meningitis diagnosed the previous day, the doctor called for an ambulance to take Baby K to Starship Hospital urgently and gave her an antibiotic injection. On arrival at Starship, she was given anti-convulsive medication and settled.
And then the family’s world fell apart.
Broken bones and hearts
A CT scan of Baby K’s head revealed what doctors diagnosed as a non-depressed linear fracture on the left side of her skull, and subdural haemorrhages (bleeding into the space between the skull and the brain) with possible injury to the brain. There was no outward evidence of trauma on her head or body – no bruising or marks.
In view of the scan, however, staff notified Te Puaruruhau, the team that sees children and young people referred for possible abuse and neglect.
Baby K was admitted under 24-hour watch by the Te Puaruruhau team. The next day a skeletal survey – a full body x-ray – revealed a history of fractures to 18 of Baby K’s ribs and to her left femur and tibia. She was seen by a range of medical specialists who determined the injuries were non-accidental.
The fractures were identified on the x-ray primarily because of the visible signs of healing – new bone had grown over them. It was estimated some fractures were at least seven days old, others “fresher”. (This means many were deemed to have taken place before an examination by their Plunket nurse, who had found nothing wrong with her.)
The doctors thought this suggested there had been “at least two separate injuries” and that these might have occurred through “abnormal handling, handling with force, and potentially a squeezing mechanism to the chest”.
Doctors also diagnosed ‘abusive head trauma’, the term that replaced shaken baby syndrome.
The paediatrician showed the parents the x-ray and asked them to explain the fractures.
“Did you or your husband hit the baby?” she asked.
They couldn’t believe what was happening. The couple are both in tears when they recall this time in hospital.
“They were questioning us about the injury. How did the injury happen? And they are pointing the finger at us that we are the ones who have brought about this intensive injury on her,” says Ravi.
“Why would we hit our precious baby?” the couple told the doctor. “We would not hit our baby. She is very precious to us.”
Overwhelmed, confused and sick with worry for their daughter, the parents repeated over and again they didn’t know what could have caused the injuries.
“We are very good parents, we were taking her to the doctors, to the Plunket as and when required, making sure that everything was going really well with her development. She was flourishing. She had no marks on the body, there was no signs of any neglect or injury being inflicted.”
Less than 24 hours after arriving at Starship, the pediatrician told them she considered it to be a case of non-accidental injury.
Zita and Ravi were devastated.
They called their family members in New Zealand and India to tell them what was happening and began to search for other explanations for the injuries.
Police and Oranga Tamariki arrive
The paediatrician and a social worker from Te Puaruruhau interviewed Zita and Ravi, who were both in shock.
The Te Puaruruhau staff explained why they were there and questioned the couple intensively about Baby K’s previous health and what had happened in the lead-up to her being brought to the hospital.
The paediatrician, who was of South Indian descent, said she could understand Hindi and asked Ravi to continue without an interpreter. Zita did much of the translation.
The couple were bewildered, especially with the news Oranga Tamariki and the police had been notified and would be coming to interview them.
From that point on, unable to provide an explanation for Baby K’s injuries, they were effectively regarded as having hurt their baby.
Blood tests showed Baby K had severely low vitamin D and low calcium, but the paediatric endocrinologist, having studied the skeletal survey and talking to the parents (this time with an interpreter), found “no clinical signs” of rickets (a condition of weakened bones caused by low vitamin D that can also cause fractures) and “no specific signs” of brittle bone disease, a genetic condition that also causes weak bones.
He considered the extremely low levels of vitamin D was simply an isolated deficiency and Baby K was treated with oral calcium and vitamin D.
“While vitamin D and calcium are important for bone health, vitamin D deficiency and low calcium have not caused [the baby’s] injuries,” he wrote in his report.
The next day Baby K was seen by an ophthalmologist, who identified a retinal haemorrhage at the back of her right eye. He noted these are common in newborn babies and in the case of a ventouse delivery (vacuum extraction cup that attaches to the baby’s head) can remain for as long as eight weeks. However, he thought the extent of the haemorrhaging in Baby K’s case was more suggestive of a non-accidental head injury.
Zita and Ravi, searching for an alternative explanation, asked for an independent second opinion and bone density tests, offering to pay for them. The paediatrician declined, saying there was no need because all necessary tests had been done.
The day before Baby K’s discharge there was further bad news from a second full-body x-ray. Evidence of another seven fractures was identified – of the humerus, the neck, the right big toe, the left big toe and three adjacent toes.
Baby K would be in hospital for a total of 12 days for observation. Zita sat at her baby’s bedside the whole time, under supervision, and Ravi would visit as soon as he clocked off at work.
At a follow-up appointment with the paediatric endocrinologist almost a month after her hospital arrival, he stated Baby K “appeared well”.
“At this time her tibias [leg bones] appeared slightly bowed, but she had no other clinical signs of rickets,” he wrote. “Her recent blood tests … had shown her calcium was normalised.”
Both parents told Newsroom they do not dispute their child had multiple injuries, but are adamant they have never, and would never, knowingly hurt their child. They say they don’t know how or why the fractures occurred and neither have ever wavered from this stance.
They say they begged and pleaded with the authorities in what English they had at the time – with hospital staff, police and Oranga Tamariki – for any other explanation or a second opinion, to no avail.
Throughout Baby K’s hospital stay, and then for weeks afterwards, police interviewed the couple on multiple occasions either without an interpreter, or with a police staff member who spoke Hindi.
Two police officers even turned up at a study course Zita’s younger brother was attending demanding he come down to the station, something he found deeply humiliating.
Zita recalls the police would speak to both her and Ravi, writing down everything in their notebooks. There were times when they would just drop by at their house without warning. They would take statements on the footpath, in open public spaces or inside the police carpark before entering the police station. None of these informal interviews involved the presence of an interpreter.
(Police would later state they did not think it was “unreasonable” to interview them without an interpreter and found no evidence of misconduct or neglect of duty.)
Bugging, home searches and foster care
At the end of Baby K’s time in hospital, Oranga Tamariki uplifted her and put her with a non-whānau, non-Indian interim foster carer.
“It was heartbreaking,” says Zita. “We both were there [at the hospital] and we said, no, we are not giving our baby to anyone.”
They were told by Oranga Tamariki staff not to cry when Baby K was taken from them and the process would go easier. They were so devastated, they told the authorities they would rather die than see their baby taken to live with strangers – something later used against them.
“They use that point that we are using it as a threat or something like that. But we are feeling how it feels when baby go to someone else’s house instead of our family,” Zita told Newsroom.
“I request them to give her to my sister; at least it’s my sister rather than going to anyone else. My sister, my brothers, everyone are ready to take her. Even my brother-in-law is there too. So they’re happy to take her, but OT doesn’t want to give her to them. I said they’re happy to do all the checks.”
After some to-ing and fro-ing it was eventually agreed Baby K could move from the interim foster carer to live with one of her aunts, supported by a set of grandparents who flew to New Zealand from India to help. This worked well for a while, and the parents were able to have weekly supervised access visits with their daughter.
Baby K was in good health – a physiotherapist and speech therapist made home visits, and at follow-up appointments at Starship her caregivers were told Baby K’s head injury had healed and they didn’t have any concerns.
But when the grandparents’ visas ran out and they had to return to India, the aunt could no longer take care of Baby K on her own and the girl was again put with a non-whānau, non-Indian foster carer.
More plans were made to move her to whānau care, but due to a family death they didn’t eventuate and she remained in the foster system, much to the parents’ devastation.
Pratima Nand QSM is an Indian community leader, professional interpreter and justice of the peace who has been supporting the couple. She describes the whole situation as “horrifying”.
“The saddest part is to see a child being put in the custody of a family where the child is not catered for culturally. In this case, this child was put into a family which was not culturally appropriate.”
At the same time, unbeknownst to Zita and Ravi, something else was unfolding.
Police had begun intercepting Zita and Ravi’s phone calls, and searching and bugging their home in an attempt to collect evidence. Over the period of covert listening, they collected a total of 639 audio recordings, of which only five were considered to have any relevance at all.
One evening, a year on from that first day in hospital and 10 months after Zita and Ravi had last heard from police, a team of officers arrived on their doorstep without warning, arrested the couple, separated them and put them in the overnight cells.
Zita was charged with injuring with intent to injure or with reckless disregard, wounding with intent to injure or with reckless disregard, and ill-treatment or neglect of a child. Ravi was charged with ill-treatment or neglect of a child.
They were released on bail on the condition they didn’t have any contact with each other, so immediately had to find separate places to live.
Now, not only did they not have their baby, they no longer had each other. Just as they thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, they did.
The entire story can be read at:
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/01/13/fractured-a-controversial-conviction-and-a-family-devastated/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
