Court hears accused father ‘snapped’

In her closing address, Crown prosecutor Fran Dalziel told jurors Joby Anthony Rowe, 24, was “exhausted” from starting work as a labourer the week prior to his daughter Alanah Rowe’s death in August 2015.

Ms Dalziel said Mr Rowe, who told police he was “buggered” from starting back at work for the first time in three months, “los[t] his cool for that instant” and shook Alanah, after she “worked herself up to screaming” on the morning of her death.

“You can see in those circumstances, ladies and gentlemen, how this otherwise loving father could just lose his control in the face of the crying, screaming baby and snap,” she said.

“He probably instantly regretted it, but you can see how it could happen.”

Mr Rowe has maintained Alanah choked while he was feeding her shortly before her mother, Stephanie Knibbs, came home from work, but Ms Dalziel said jurors should reject his version of events “as having a gaping hole in it”.

Ms Dalziel said while Mr Rowe told police it was Ms Knibbs who noticed Alanah gasping for breath, two paramedics and a police officer who attended the scene on the day said Mr Rowe told them “he was aware that Alanah was having breathing difficulties before Stephanie got home”.

“It is unlikely, I suggest to you, that three independent witnesses would get that detail wrong,” she said.

Ms Dalziel also reminded jurors two expert witnesses had told the court the suggestion the three-month-old had become unconscious as a result of choking on baby formula “could not happen”.

“Each of them spoke about a baby being able to, or a child, choking on an object or a solid lump of food, such as a lump of banana, but each of them soundly rejected the proposition that Alanah could have fallen unconscious and gone into cardiac arrest simply by choking on formula,” she said.

“Each of the experts concluded that the injuries in Alanah were caused by inflicted trauma, and that is shaking, with or without impact.

“Each of them carefully considered and excluded a range of other possible explanations or causes for Alanah's injuries.”

Mr Rowe’s barrister Paul Higham said “the picture that emerge[d]” of his client during the trial was one of “a loving, a caring, a careful, an actively-engaged and hands-on dad”.

Mr Higham disputed Ms Dalziel’s characterisation of Alanah as “an endlessly crying baby” during the week of her death as “not an accurate description”.

“So be very careful [of] the delicate picture that is sought to be painted by the prosecution, leading up to, she was crying more and more and more and so that – it's clear what they're saying, isn't it – that becomes a trigger for Mr Rowe to snap on this Saturday having had enough,” he said.

Mr Higham said while “there may be some confusion as to who said what to whom” in relation to Alanah’s breathing, it was “not of any significance in this case” and advised the jury to view any consideration of inconsistencies in Mr Rowe’s police interviews as the product of “a conversation being had by a police officer with a father whose three-month-old child is desperately ill and on a life support machine”.

“If you find inconsistencies you will bear that in mind, I know, this is a man being asked questions in perhaps the greatest crisis that he'd been yet to face,” he said.

Mr Rowe has pleaded not guilty to child homicide.