Victoria, Australia: A mother of a 7-week-old baby killed by his father says he doesn’t have a right to call himself a parent.
Joseph McDonald admitted shaking his baby boy Lucas to death after which he put the infant back in his cradle and went back to playing his video game before going to sleep.
“He doesn’t have the right to the title of being a dad as far as I’m concerned, so I think that will be his life sentence,” Sam Duckmanton, the baby’s mother said.
The video game addict was charged with the killing of a baby end of 2019.
He became furious when his son’s crying interrupted his game.
“The noise of Lucas crying because he was in the same lounge room, was interrupting his game … he couldn’t concentrate on his game,” the baby’s grandmother Sharon Mills said.
“He couldn’t play his game, so he broke.”
The 23-year-old father shook his child violently and knocked his head on the floor so hard he suffered fatal head injuries back in October of 2019.
Joseph lied to his partner and medical experts about what had transpired, which caused a delay in the baby’s blunt force trauma diagnosis.
Little Lucas was first taken to a Benalla hospital with life-threatening injuries, before being brought to the Monash Children’s hospital.
When the scans showed the baby’s injuries couldn’t possibly have been caused by accident and that he would not make it, his father fled the hospital.
Later on, he turned himself into police custody after the cops released footage of him, urging him to come out of hiding.
The mother said her baby was perfect in every way imaginable, and she wished she was there to shield her son from harm.
“I couldn’t protect him because I trusted Joseph … I loved him,” she said.
Joseph’s lawyers say he needs to combat his anger issues, marijuana use, and addiction to violent video games.
He pleaded guilty to child homicide at the Supreme Court recently and will face up to 20 years behind bars.
