Death of a baby: Australian father Joseph McDonald played video games after shaking his son

WARNING: PAIN CONTENT

A Victorian man played games on his PlayStation and fell asleep moments after fatally shaking his 7-week-old son.

Benalla man Joseph McDonald pleaded guilty to one count of child manslaughter in the Victoria Supreme Court on Friday.

The 23-year-old admitted to shaking and hitting baby Lucas’s head on the ground on October 24 of last year. The baby died at Monash Children’s Hospital four days later.

But McDonald got no help and instead put the baby in his rocking chair and started playing video games on the PlayStation until the sawmill worker fell asleep.

When the boy’s mother, Samantha Duckmanton, heard her baby’s piercing cry, she looked at him, but McDonald said the crying happened because it was “swaddling” him.

After the assault, baby Lucas appeared stunned, his eyes were not focused, and his arms and legs were making strange movements and he was not feeding, the court was told.

“Lucas deserved to feel safe and protected by his dad. You disappointed him,” Duckmanton said in a statement.

The baby killer did not deserve the title “dad” for what he did to his family, the mom said.

“You don’t deserve forgiveness nor do you deserve to have the title of daddy,” he said.

The baby was rushed to the local hospital emergency room after his condition worsened on October 25 before being transferred to Monash Children’s Hospital in suburban Melbourne.

McDonald lied to an intensive care unit doctor about what happened, claiming instead that the baby appeared “pale and was breathing very quietly” after a routine medical checkup.

“He was putting his own interest first over the welfare of his son … at least tell the medical staff in case anything can be done,” Judge Stephen Kaye said of the father.

Lucas died Oct. 29 at the hospital from “catastrophic” head injuries, the court was told.

When hospital staff told the family that the baby died from “non-accidental” injuries, McDonald said nothing.

Lucas’s heartbroken mother asked McDonald about it later, but he lied to her and then fled the hospital.

He hid in a horse shed and when discovered he told the owner that he had been beaten and stolen.

McDonald made it to the suburb of Wallan and spent hours in front of an operations store before calling his mother and turning himself in to police on November 2.

His defense attorney Colin Mandy SC said the man was “deeply saddened.”

“He feels like he should be properly punished for what he’s done and he wants that, whatever it is,” Mandy said.

McDonald had anger management issues, had no criminal record, was addicted to violent video games, pleaded guilty early and was repentant, the attorney explained.

“He had an extraordinary addiction to PlayStation,” Judge Kaye noted.

The judge will sentence McDonald at a later date.