MARTIN: Legal landscape into cases of shaken babies may have to change

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It should be painfully clear to almost every Canadian parent that the best way to quiet a crying baby is not to violently shake the child until it stops breathing.

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But Anthony Karl Kurucz isn’t “almost every Canadian.”

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Kurucz was convicted of manslaughter this week in the death of his three-month-old son almost six years ago.

Justice Glen Poelman found Kurucz didn’t intend the deadly consequences of his actions with little Jayden Cyluck Kurucz the afternoon of April 24, 2018, and acquitted him of the more serious charge he faced of second-degree murder.

Kurucz admitted to an undercover police officer during a so-called Mr. Big operation that he was frustrated with the child and shook him to quiet him down and also tossed him onto a couch.

In final arguments in January, defence counsel Darren Mahoney suggested if Poelman was to conclude the confession was reliable it would amount to a case of shaken baby syndrome which historically led to manslaughter convictions.

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Mahoney said convicting Kurucz of murder would have changed the “legal landscape” established in such cases.

But in 2024, it’s probably time to change that landscape, at least in most cases.

There was a time when it wasn’t uncommon for a parent trying to get an infant to quiet down, or go to sleep, to gently shake the child. Many felt it was akin to rocking a baby in a crib.

So when cases started to emerge where children actually began to die when such a method was used by parents and the authorities deemed these deaths to be criminal in nature, it was only natural for the offending party to be charged with manslaughter, rather than murder, which requires a specific intent.

Over time, however, there has been a vast amount of publicity and literature to warn people that shaking a baby isn’t only dangerous — as it violently shakes their brains back and forth inside their skulls because their underdeveloped necks don’t have the strength to hold their heads in place — it will likely cause grievous bodily harm or death.

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New parents should be aware of the vulnerability of the tiny charges in their care and how shaking a child under any circumstances is not acceptable.

Unfortunately, there are still many people producing offspring who aren’t aware of that fact and Kurucz was one of them.

Poelman rightly found that Kurucz — who court heard was of below-average intelligence, with one test suggesting he had an IQ of 70 — was one of those parents.

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“Mr. Kurucz was not experienced in caring for young infants and presumably had no particular knowledge of the frailty of their neck support and brain structure, as explained by experts,” the Calgary Court of King’s Bench judge said.

Poelman found Kurucz’s lack of knowledge meant he didn’t intend to cause Jayden bodily harm that he knew was likely to kill the child and was reckless whether that happened, one of the two branches of intent needed to prove murder.

“Mr. Kurucz’s conduct is equally consistent with someone lashing out in anger and administrating physical force to punish or cause a change in behaviour. There are no justifications for such conduct with a helpless, totally dependent child. However, Mr. Kurucz’s actions do not convince me beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to cause bodily harm that he knew was likely to kill Jayden and was reckless whether he did.”

Every parent in Calgary and beyond should pay heed to the verdict in this case.

And anyone who knows a new parent who may not be aware of the dangers of shaking a baby should immediately let them know.

Parenting can be terribly frustrating but that doesn’t justify such conduct and maybe, in the future, will result in murder convictions.

KMartin@postmedia.com

X: @KMartinCourts

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