‘Black and blue’: Parents fight for justice over baby's bruises
A furious father has taken to social media to vent his frustrations after he and his partner came home from a night out to find their one-year-old son, Jacob, screaming, seemingly in pain.
The couple then discovered the babysitter asleep on the couch, leaving their infant allegedly unattended.
However the next morning when the family awoke, to the parents horror, their son appeared to be covered in bruises.
The parents then went to local authorities to report the incident but the parents claim weeks went by and no criminal charges were filed against the babysitter.
The heated rant on social media was uploaded with images of the bruised baby have since gone viral, being shared more than 200, 000 times.
The baby appears to be badly bruised in the shocking images.
According to Oregon Live doctors noted that the baby’s bruises showed a handprint across the child’s face.
Also reported by the Oregon Live was the fact that a detective allegedly told the parents that the abuse could have killed the baby.
"Something needs to be done," the father wrote as part of his post.
"NOBODY can just hit a child and more to just get away with it because the child (can't) verbally tell you."
The irate father was making a direct reference to a 2012 Oregon Court of Appeals ruling that prosecutors say made it more difficult to file charges in abuse cases with victims who can't speak.
Even though Joshua Marbury’s one-year-old son was covered in bruises and scars from the babysitter’s alleged beating, the accused abuser is protected by a 2012 Oregon Court of Appeals ruling that discourages prosecutors from filing charges due to the fact that the baby can’t speak about the alleged assault.
“After TWO months of waiting we only find out that charges are dropped BECAUSE my one year old cannot tell you verbally he was abused and my son did not show he was in pain OR that this person ‘intentionally’ did this,” Marbury wrote in an angry Facebook post on Friday.
“I am so furious that I’m not using profanity hoping something is done and this goes viral.”
“Nobody can just hit a child and more to just get away with it because the child can’t verbally tell you,” the father went on to post.
Alicia Quinney, Jacob's mother, said she consoled her son when she returned home the night of the alleged incident.
However she stunned by what she saw the next morning.
"The first thing I saw was a black eye," she told Oregon Live.
"I thought maybe marker got on his face or something. When he turned over, his whole right side of his face -- black and blue."
There were more marks on the child’s right ear, arm and back, according to the mother.
After Marbury’s Facebook post has since gone viral and the family have been inundated with an outpouring of support from relatives of victims with the same frustrations.
News break – May 23
