The accused of mistreating his baby asks to check if he has inherited a muscular disease

BarcelonaThe defense of the baby's father, who is being investigated for alleged abuse and sexual assault by his parents, has requested new medical tests to determine the origin of the injuries for which he remains hospitalized. His lawyer, Montse Antolino, explained in statements to ARA that she has presented the investigating judge with a medical report signed by a private physician stating that the man carries a gene related to muscular dystrophy and collagen deficiency. The defense now requests clarification as to whether the baby also carries this gene and if it could be the cause or trigger of the injuries.

The director of Antolino Advocats adds that she has asked the Barcelona Court for Violence Against Children and Adolescents, responsible for the case, to assign the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Catalonia (Imelec) to conduct these new medical tests on the child. Awaiting this decision, sources close to the investigation indicate that in the initial judicial statements following the arrest of the child's parents, the pediatrician who assessed the baby reviewed the family history – both the man's and the woman's – and ruled out that they suffered from any illness at that time.

The baby's father and mother, aged 42 and 43, remain in provisional prison and in the coming days the Barcelona Court will decide whether to keep them imprisoned while the investigation continues or to grant them provisional liberty as both have requested. Each is represented by a different lawyer. Meanwhile, the child has already been moved out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, where he has been admitted for more than two weeks, according to sources consulted by ARA.

Apart from these tests, different witnesses from the family's environment and all the doctors who treated the infant before the child abuse protocol was activated will also be heard in the investigation. The minor was only five weeks old when his parents were arrested and he had been visited at least five times in different health centers, but they did not go to Vall d'Hebron, where the mother worked and the child was born, until the professionals referred them there as a health center specialized in child violence.