- DAY ONE: Mother weeps as alleged baby killer’s trial begins
- DAY TWO: Court hears of baby’s final hours
- DAY THREE: Father’s trial continues
- DAY FOUR/FIVE: Pathologist testifies in child homicide trial
- DAY SIX: ‘I would never hurt my kid’
- DAY EIGHT: Court hears accused father ‘snapped’
- DAY NINE: Jury urged not to try to ‘give closure’
A man accused of shaking his baby daughter to death has denied dropping, hitting or shaking the three-month-old in a police interview played to the Supreme Court.
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Joby Anthony Rowe, 24, is on trial for child homicide following the death of his daughter, Alanah Rowe, in Heathcote in 2015.
Mr Rowe was questioned by the homicide squad in the hours prior to Alanah’s death, and again almost a month later, about the circumstances leading up to the infant being rushed to the Royal Children’s Hospital on August 29.
A video recording of the second interview was played to the jury in his trial in Bendigo on Monday.
Under questioning from detective senior constable Glen Scharper, Mr Rowe said he had not shaken, hit or dropped his infant daughter.
“I’ve never dropped her,” he said.
“If you dropped a three-month-old baby something’s going to happen, there’s going to be a mark.”
On the tape, Senior Constable Scharper asked Mr Rowe if something had happened on the day Alanah died that he was “too scared” to talk about, which Mr Rowe also denied, saying he could think of nothing that would explain her injuries.
“No, if something would have happened I'd tell you,” he said.
Questioned about the recollection of an ambulance officer on the scene at his Heathcote unit that he had said Alanah “fell backwards and went unconscious”, Mr Rowe described the suggestion as “a load of shit”, saying there was “no way in the world” he had said it.
Senior Constable Scharper also questioned Mr Rowe about an exchange in their previous interview in which he denied “shaking the shit out of” Alanah.
“What made you say that?” Senior Constable Scharper asked, to which Mr Rowe replied “because it’s the truth, it’s not what I was doing”, saying he had only held the child under the arms and bounced her up and down.
“I don't understand where she's getting shaken,” he said.
“I didn't do it, I didn't hurt her.”
The trial continues in Bendigo on Tuesday.