A mother found her baby boy covered in bruises and lying in blood-stained sheets following a burglary at their regional Victorian home, court documents show.
Casey Veal discovered 11-month-old Zayden Veal unresponsive in his cot, moments after realising their Long Gully home had been robbed as they slept.
“He was just dead weight,” Ms Veal said in her statement to police.
“So I shook him again thinking maybe he was just really asleep, but as I’ve gone to shake him on the belly he’s kind of gone a little over and I just saw blood everywhere.
“His little face was covered in bruises and there was a big pile of blood under him and he was just stained into his bed.”
Harley Hicks, 20, of North Bendigo, has been charged with the murder of baby Zayden on June 15 last year.
Hicks’ committal hearing in the Bendigo Magistrates Court was told on Tuesday that police linked him to Zayden’s death given he was a suspect in robberies from nearby homes in the days leading up to, and on, the night in question.
Hicks allegedly entered the home, in the Bendigo suburb of Long Gully, armed with a baton and stole two wallets and a pair of sunglasses.
Ms Veal’s police statement, tendered to the court on Wednesday, describe Ms Veal ringing paramedics in a frenzy then trying to give her son CPR from directions over the phone while she waited for an ambulance to arrive.
“I was screaming at her (operator), ‘Someone bashed my son’,” Ms Veal said in the statement.
“His eyes were just black and and he was covered in blood all over his nose.”
Zayden was raced to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Hicks is charged with aggravated burglary, theft and murder.
The hearing continues.
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