The Mossos want to review the movements of the parents of the abused baby with the positioning of the mobiles

BarcelonaThe judicial investigation into the case of the Barcelona baby who was admitted to the ICU at five weeks old with signs of severe abuse and sexual assault, allegedly at the hands of their parents, is nearing its end. This Wednesday, a nurse from Sant Joan de Déu and several employees from the Hospital del Mar testified in court; they had attended to the minor a few days before he was hospitalized, when he still had no evident injuries. In fact, all the professionals agreed that they did not suspect any abuse, as a pediatrician and a nurse from the CAP Roger de Flor had already explained. In parallel, the Mossos d'Esquadra have proposed to the court to analyze the geolocation of the mobile phones of both suspects, both the father and the mother, in the days before the child's hospital admission. The injuries are being investigated as an attempted homicide because they posed a risk to the child's life.

Defense sources are confident that this police request can serve to prove that the man and the woman were not together at all times. This is the same line of defense used by the woman's legal team, which already argued that as a mother she could not "control" everything the man did. In fact, the mother's defense –different from the father's– claims that she often went out to do the shopping or stretch her legs on medical advice after the birth. In contrast, sources from the Prosecutor's Office recall that the couple lived together and that, therefore, either of them could have detected the child's severe injuries, even if they had occurred while one of them was not at home. In any case, the mobile phone positioning will only be able to contribute to the investigation by showing which telephone antenna the mobile devices were connected to, and a single antenna can cover a neighborhood or several city blocks.

The woman's internet history already shows that she was concerned about how the man was treating the baby, with searches like "My partner cannot stand the baby". Furthermore, she confessed to two work friends that she considered throwing the man out of the house because he was not taking good care of the child. However, before the judge, she denied having intervened in any assault or having seen her husband abuse the baby. She said this in a statement made at her own request after being released on provisional liberty.

The father, on the other hand, remains in provisional prison since his arrest on March 18. Since then, he has not spoken to the judge again. Now he has requested to testify again and this Thursday, six months later, he will be transferred from Brians 1 prison to the court to give explanations. Until now, neither of the two has incriminated the other, although they have different defenses and the woman did distance herself from her husband in her last statement. Throughout these six months, neither of them has visited the child, who remains with a foster family, nor have they had contact with each other, according to the defense.

Testimony of the healthcare workers

The judge is also waiting to receive the psychological reports of the two suspects, and this Thursday he will hear the last witnesses scheduled so far in the investigation. They are a doctor from the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, the sister-in-law of the suspect, and a cousin who is a primary care physician and whom they consulted about the child's health status. With her, they spoke about the anal fissures the baby had, which none of the healthcare workers who have testified so far had been alerted about. Those who gave statements this Wednesday agreed that they did not see anything relevant or that would make them suspect abuse, nor any inappropriate or aggressive behavior from the parents.

One of the reasons that led the family to the consultation was a hematoma on the baby's scrotum, which the defense attributes to a bag that had been placed on him to perform a urine analysis. However, the healthcare workers have ruled out that it could have caused it. The testimonies of the healthcare workers who have testified in the case have also clarified that the injuries the child had could not have been caused by a single action and, in fact, the professionals at Vall d'Hebron, where the baby was admitted, described them as the most serious anal injuries they had ever seen.