An aboriginal man who fractured a baby’s skull during a home invasion in Alice Springs will not serve any jail time for the crime.
The 18-year-old, who cannot be named as he was a minor at the time, in August pleaded guilty to to aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, unlawfully causing serious harm, theft, and aggravated assault over the horrific December 2024 attack.
The man and his co-offender, who were 16 and 17 and on bail for violent offending, broke into the home of the Siguenza family in Larapinta to steal alcohol when he hit mother Nicole with a metal fridge handle, which then rebounded onto the head of baby Antonia.
The two-month old was flown to Adelaide for urgent medical treatment for a skull fracture, which has left her needing to take anti-epilepsy medication, NT News reported.
In sentencing on Tuesday Northern Territory Supreme Court Justice Sonia Brownhill told the court Antonia “had swelling to her forehead, bruising and a graze 8 to 10 centimetres in length”.
“A CT scan indicated a bruise on her brain with a small amount of blood in the space between the brain and the brain membrane,” she said.
“Ultrasounds revealed bruising on one side of the brain and bleeding on both sides of the brain and in the space between the brain and surrounding tissue.”
But she described the man’s offending as in the “mid-range” of seriousness, and said she would take into account his youth and remorse, because “young people do not have the same decision making capacity and judgement as older offenders”.
She sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment to be served via an intensive community corrections order that will involve him spending 12 hours a week working on a “project” in Alice Springs while living in a residential rehabilitation facility.
The order comes with 12 conditions, including him leaving Alice Springs once the project is complete, electronic monitoring, and a ban on drinking alcohol.
The court heard he had written his victims an apology letter, and Justice Brownhill told him during sentencing: “You said you were going to change your life to show Ms Siguenza that you are sorry.”
He co-offender was last month sentenced to two years’ jail, backdated to the time of his arrest, with a non-parole period of one year.
Header image: Antonia Siguenza (GoFundMe).
