- Yudhistira Prasetyo avoids jail after admitting he shook his baby
- The Herald Sun
- 06/11/2008 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: The Rooster ( 264 articles in 2008 )
A RELATIVE of the Indonesian royal family who violently shook his six-week-old baby at his Melbourne home causing him permanent brain damage has avoided prison.
Left to care for his new son when his wife went to a class in October 2006, Yudhistira Prasetyo, 34, panicked when baby Aradea vomited several times and stopped breathing.
He shook the child and held him upside down by the legs in an effort to revive him, the Victorian County Court heard today.
The baby lived, but suffered injuries which one doctor said were consistent with blunt force trauma, including bruising to his right eye, shoulders, ribs and swelling to the brain.
Prasetyo, of Camberwell, admitted to shaking the child, telling his wife he hit the baby on both sides of the face.
Baby Aradea spent several days in the Royal Children's Hospital where doctors found he had severe brain damage.
Prasetyo pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury.
Judge Frank Gucciardo said Prasetyo was clearly trying to help the baby.
"I accept your actions were done out of inexperience and concern," Judge Gucciardo said.
"You are not a man of violent disposition or aggressive habits."
He said Prasetyo's moral culpability was at the low end of the scale.
"(Your) sentence needs to reflect the paramount aim of protection of the weakest in our community," Judge Gucciardo said.
He said despite coming from a "privileged and fortunate background" which was "connected to the royal family" it had not prepared Prasetyo for the challenge of fatherhood.
Judge Gucciardo jailed Prasetyo for three years, wholly suspending the sentence for three years.
Left to care for his new son when his wife went to a class in October 2006, Yudhistira Prasetyo, 34, panicked when baby Aradea vomited several times and stopped breathing.
He shook the child and held him upside down by the legs in an effort to revive him, the Victorian County Court heard today.
The baby lived, but suffered injuries which one doctor said were consistent with blunt force trauma, including bruising to his right eye, shoulders, ribs and swelling to the brain.
Prasetyo, of Camberwell, admitted to shaking the child, telling his wife he hit the baby on both sides of the face.
Baby Aradea spent several days in the Royal Children's Hospital where doctors found he had severe brain damage.
Prasetyo pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury.
Judge Frank Gucciardo said Prasetyo was clearly trying to help the baby.
"I accept your actions were done out of inexperience and concern," Judge Gucciardo said.
"You are not a man of violent disposition or aggressive habits."
He said Prasetyo's moral culpability was at the low end of the scale.
"(Your) sentence needs to reflect the paramount aim of protection of the weakest in our community," Judge Gucciardo said.
He said despite coming from a "privileged and fortunate background" which was "connected to the royal family" it had not prepared Prasetyo for the challenge of fatherhood.
Judge Gucciardo jailed Prasetyo for three years, wholly suspending the sentence for three years.
Source: https://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24612062-5005961,00.html
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