CJ Bodhi Brian White-Sinclair

David Grant Sinclair, 31, was on Friday jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for murdering his 10-month-old son, CJ White. The little boy died on July 9, 2019 after suffering 30 bruises on his body, complex fractures to his skull and bleeding on the brain and behind both eyes. A jury found Sinclair guilty of murder after a two-week trial in November at the High Court in Greymouth. On Friday the court heard that Sinclair had admitted consuming cannabis and methamphetamine on the night of CJ’s death, information which was withheld from the jury. Outside court, CJ’s mother Laura White told Stuff Sinclair threatened to kill himself if she did not let him see their son. She said Sinclair did not have legal custody of CJ, but had made it impossible for her to get him back. “He manipulated me to even drop him off there, and he made me believe he was going to be safe. “He made me believe that his mum was there every day. He told me that I was selfish if I didn’t give up breastfeeding. “It was only supposed to be for a week or so. I had to drive up to Blenheim to pick up my sons from their dad and I was going to collect CJ and go back to my parents’ house. But that did not happen,” she said. She first went to Oranga Tamariki to alert them to her concerns for CJ in the care of his father on June 4, about a month before his death. “From June 4 to the day he died I was in and out of every office in Greymouth and Hokitika saying, ‘what can I do next?’” They described CJ as a happy baby with bright blue eyes who loved his food, who crawled around the room playing with his toys and laughing. White told the court her son was a happy, cuddly baby who was just learning to walk when he was taken away by a “monster”. Justice Rebecca Edwards said Sinclair had inflicted unusually severe head injuries on CJ that reached from ear to ear. A pathologist said she had never seen such a complex skull fracture before in her career, with CJ’s injuries akin to those usually seen in high-impact road crashes. Sinclair, who showed no remorse, did not seek medical attention for his son but instead spent time gambling online and searching for how to concoct a self-serving lie for how CJ was injured, Justice Edwards said. He first told emergency services and police that CJ had fallen out of bed, but changed his story just before the trial to say that CJ had fallen down the stairs. A broken foot and horrific bruising of his groin likely caused by a kick pointed to a pattern of abuse. Detective Sergeant Aaron Paulsen said no sentence was ever adequate when a child life was lost. Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/124589386/mum-of-baby-murder....