Cops, pathologist under fire at inquest into baby’s death

Because of the shoddy handling of Noah Shipman’s case, his parents may never know the cause of their 8-month-old son’s death, a court had heard.

Durban - The parents of baby Noah Shipman, who died soon after he turned blue at an eManzimtoti creche last year, are desperate to know the cause of their son’s death.

But because of the police’s shoddy handling of the case and the inconclusive findings of a pathologist who conducted the post-mortem on 8-month-old Noah, his parents may never get the answers they need.

This was the argument of attorney Petrus Coetzee, who represented the Shipmans in the inquest on Noah in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

According to the Inquest Act, a magistrate hears evidence in an inquest to determine the cause of death and whether the death was brought about by any act or omission involving or amounting to an offence by any person.

Coetzee said the police had done nothing with the case from the time Noah had died on May 25 last year until September last year, when the Shipman family laid a complaint with provincial head of detectives Brigadier Clifford Marion.

Coetzee said it was apparent that the investigating officer had started investigating only after Marion’s intervention.

“The problem here is the lack of evidence due to the manner in which the police investigated the matter. There is no factual evidence from which inferences can be drawn,” said Coetzee.

He said the police had failed to collect forensic evidence.

Earlier on Wednesday, the court admitted statements from the police docket even though most of them had not been commissioned by a commissioner of oaths.

Magistrate Irfaan Khalil said it was apparent that the investigating officer “had no idea” about how to take a commissioned statement.

He said it was in the interests of justice that the statements be admitted, including statements where the witnesses had not been called to testify.

Coetzee told the court a pathologist’s evidence was also a problem because his initial report had ruled the death as natural, but it was later changed to an unnatural death as a result of “asphyxia consistent with aspiration”, after the pathologist viewed the notes from the hospital where Noah had been taken.

The court heard evidence that Noah was taken to the hospital after a caregiver noticed that he was not moving and that his mouth had turned blue.

Khalil questioned whether he should report the conduct of the police to the police management so that other investigations would not be handled in the same way.

Coetzee and advocate Russel Hand, who acted for the creche, agreed that the police should be informed about how the case was handled, and the pathologist’s conduct should be reported to the Health Professions Council of South Africa.

Judgment was reserved.

The Mercury