Father of injured infant in Barcelona denies abuse and cites negligence in court

Judicial hearing in Barcelona court

The father of a six-week-old infant who suffered severe physical trauma appeared on Thursday before the Sección de Violencia contra la Infancia y la Adolescencia of the Tribunal de Instancia de Barcelona. The judicial declaration, requested by the defense at the defendant's own initiative, lasted approximately two hours. Police officers escorted the man from prison, where he has remained in preventive custody since his arrest in March. The court is investigating both parents for alleged child abuse and sexual assault. During the proceeding, the father responded to questions from the public prosecutor, legal representatives for the mother, and his own defense attorney.

Defense claims of unintentional harm and negligence

Throughout the two-hour interrogation, the father denied intentionally inflicting harm on his son, repeatedly stating that he was not conscious of having injured the infant. When asked directly by his lawyer if he was a violent individual or capable of hurting his child, he replied negatively to each inquiry. In attempting to account for the infant's broken ribs and bodily trauma, he attributed the injuries to potential carelessness rather than deliberate physical abuse. He argued that he might have swaddled and squeezed the baby too tightly while attempting to comfort him, admitted to shaking the child on one occasion, and suggested that another negligent incident might have occurred while bathing him.

Hospital admission and forensic findings

The six-week-old infant was admitted to the intensive care unit of Hospital Vall d'Hebron on 16 March with brain damage, rib fractures, femur injuries, and severe anal trauma. Case files and clinical documentation recorded multiple small anal fissures as well as one wound of substantial size. The father claimed during his declaration that both parents noticed the fissures and assumed they were caused by the dimensions of the infant's stool. He added that they alerted medical staff to the condition, though doctors provided no response. Forensic specialists and medical practitioners questioned during the investigation stated that it was impossible for stool passage to have caused a laceration of that magnitude.

Custody measures and legal status of both parents

Following the hospital admission in March, both parents were arrested and remanded in provisional custody, though both previously denied mistreating their son during earlier judicial declarations. The mother, an emergency nurse employed at Hospital Vall d'Hebron, was subsequently released from prison under cautionary measures with charges pending. During his Thursday testimony, the father fully exculpated the mother, stating that she was not responsible for the harm and that he had never witnessed any abnormal behavior on her part. The infant has since been placed under the administrative guardianship of the Generalitat de Catalunya and currently lives with a foster family.