Source: Radio New Zealand
Tony Farmer. Pool / Chris Skelton / Stuff
The two people suspected to be responsible for the death of baby Soul Turany never discussed how the boy suffered his catastrophic head injuries, an inquest has heard.
Police say either the boy’s mother Storme Turany or her then-partner Tony Farmer must have inflicted the injuries that killed the 16-week-old, some time on the morning of 30 August, 2014 at their rural home near Darfield.
Soul died early on 31 August, 2014.
Clinicians have told the inquest into Soul’s death that he could not have injured himself, the person who did it would have known what they had done and Soul would have been unconscious soon after the assault.
Coroner Ian Telford advised Turany and Farmer of the privilege against self-incrimination before they gave evidence in Christchurch.
During more than nine hours on the stand Turany did not invoke that privilege and strenuously denied any involvement in her son’s death, instead pointing the finger at Farmer.
On Friday, Farmer also denied ever harming Soul.
A possibility put to Farmer by counsel assisting the coroner Jamie O’Sullivan was that, “You were not Soul’s father, you’ve been in a stressful situation, Storme’s snapping at you, you became stressed and annoyed at Soul?”
“No, I wasn’t,” Farmer responded.
“Have you ever become frustrated with Soul and handled him roughly?” O’Sullivan asked.
“No,” Farmer responded. Farmer said he had also never handled his own child roughly.
Asked what he would say in response to suggestions he had harmed Soul, Farmer said “that I didn’t”.
Farmer went to Soul’s funeral and stayed with Turany for several days afterwards.
He told the inquest he wanted to remain in a relationship with her.
“I loved Storme,” he said. “Maybe now I might not have been in as much love as I thought I had been, but at the time, yep.”
Farmer said the couple never spoke about how Soul died, despite both being told by police one of them must have caused the non-accidental injuries.
“She said she was confused, but we didn’t discuss anything to do with Soul or cause of death or anything like that,” he said.
Asked why not, he responded, “I don’t know – just neither of us did.
“Obviously she wasn’t doing too well. She was upset so I didn’t really want to bring it up. It sounds silly, such a raw subject. You might have questions but you don’t want to upset someone further.”
Soul Turany. Supplied / Facebook
On the morning Soul was injured, he woke between 3am and 3.30am and was unsettled. Turany spent much of the morning trying to settle him, including giving the child paracetamol and a nasal spray.
Farmer admitted going into the child’s room and placing a dummy in his mouth while Turany prepared a bottle.
Soul was still unsettled at 5.29am and Farmer sent a message asking Turany if she wanted help.
Turany called Healthline at 6.23am but hung up after 17 seconds.
Turany then made a series of unanswered calls to her sister and left a voice message saying she was going to take Soul to hospital.
She again called Healthline.
Turany and Farmer agreed Soul was alert at this time. Soul was sitting on Farmer’s knee and Turany said she went outside at some stage during the nine-minute call.
Farmer and Turany agreed Soul was limp at the end of that call.
Clinicians told the inquest Soul’s fatal injuries were likely inflicted about six to 12 hours before his first scan at Christchurch Hospital at 10.20am on 30 August. They said he was likely unconscious immediately following the assault or very soon afterwards.
O’Sullivan asked Farmer if he had injured Soul while he was sitting on his lap.
“Is there anything you could have done with Soul that harmed him either accidentally or in another way?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
Farmer’s evidence is continuing on Friday.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand