File photo. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a prominent sportsman accused of breaking a baby's ribs.
The man, whose name is suppressed, is accused of injuring with reckless disregard, with an alternative charge of assault in a family relationship.
Judge David Robinson summed up the case on Monday morning after the three-week long trial in the Dunedin District Court.
The Crown alleges the man lost patience with the unsettled baby in 2023, squeezing him and breaking more than a dozen of his ribs and his collarbone.
Defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC said the man would never risk the safety of a child and insisted there were other ways the baby could have been hurt.
Judge Robinson asked the jury not to be influenced by prejudice or sympathy, saying they should take a calm, dispassionate view of the evidence while reaching a verdict.
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