Drunk mother denied custody of seven-month-old baby

A court yesterday heard how a drunk mother didn't even know that her seven-month-old son had fallen off a barstool.

Police Sergeant Antoine Buttigieg was testifying against a 30-year-old woman who faces a string of charges connected to child neglect. Although there is no court order against publication of the name of the accused, MaltaToday decided to withhold the name to protect the child's identity.

The baby sustained injuries to the face and was hospitalised for some days, placed under police protection and later under foster care.

PS Buttigieg told Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima how on the night of 10 December, 2011 he received a phone call at the Qawra Police Station from a distressed barman at Miracles Pub who told him that "something urgent needed to be done, because a baby was in danger".

Sergeant Buttigieg went to the pub and found the mother in a clear state of drunkenness, and refused to communicate with the police.

The baby was found unharnessed and with bruising to the left eye, and a bump on its forehead. Barman Engelbert Debono told the police that the mother had entered the bar with the baby at 10pm and drank some six to seven glasses of wine in half an hour.

At one point when the baby started to cry in its pushchair, the accused roughly put him onto a stool where he subsequently fell.

"According to the patrons at the bar, the mother didn't even know that the baby fell off the stool, and the patrons themselves assisted the baby, lifting it from the floor and putting it back inside the pushchair," the Sergeant told the court.

PS Buttigieg went on to explain that when seeing the baby's injuries, he immediately decided to put the baby under police protection, and escorted the mother to the Qawra Police Station.

"With the mother in a clear drunken state, I sent the baby with another officer to the Mosta Health Centre for medical treatment, and afterwards to Mater Dei Hospital, where he  remained under police protection for some days, and later entrusted to the Sisters of the Creche," Buttigieg said.

According to the Sergeant, the mother was arrested and put into a cell after she made a scene, began using foul language and challenging the police.

The mother said that the baby's father was not interested in her, and was "partying somewhere with some Russian women".

The woman's case was later transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department and interrogated by Supt. Louise Calleja and Inspector Jessica Grima.

She was offered access to a lawyer but refused.

The defendant, who sat in the dock, nervously twitching her feet, was repeatedly heard mumbling remarks to contest the evidence given by the police during the sitting.

She faces up to four years in prison if found guilty.