By LAURA WAKELY
A WOMAN threw a toddler against a wall so hard it left indentations in the wall, a court heard last week.
Melissa Ngati pleaded guilty to attacking the two-year-old in a Deer Park home in November last year.
Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard the 25-year-old “just went for it” after the toddler vomited on a bed, throwing the child against a wall head-first three times before punching and kicking her repeatedly.
Police described the attack as “brutal” and likened the injuries to those resulting from a serious vehicle accident.
Court documents showed the toddler suffered multiple skull fractures, permanent brain damage, a ruptured neck artery, fractures to the neck, collar bone, rib and femur, the loss of mobility on the right side of the body and bruising as a result of the attack.
The child was also dehydrated and undernourished, according to doctors’ assessments.
Ms Ngati pleaded not guilty to charges relating to a three-day delay in taking the child to hospital and claimed she had been trying to feed the toddler via a syringe.
She said she was “hoping” the child would be fine and “scared” of what would happen when she took the child to hospital.
“I just realised… ‘Suck it up and do what’s right and (the child) needs to go into the hospital,” Ms Ngati told police.
A 36-year-old man also appeared in court in relation to the incident and pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury.
Ms Ngati has been remanded in custody to appear before the County Court on 21 September.
