The mother of a toddler, allegedly murdered by her new partner, has tearfully told a court she thought her son’s bruises were suspicious.
On Friday, witness Stacie Saggers, 38, took the stand in the Victorian Supreme Court at the trial of her ex-boyfriend Brendan Pallant.
Mr Pallant has pleaded not guilty to the alleged murder of two-year-old Jaidyn Gomes-Sebastiao, with his barrister, Rishi Nathwani, saying the jury will have to decide if he inflicted the fatal injuries.
Ms Saggers, who isn’t accused of any wrongdoing, described her son, the youngest of four, as a “very affectionate little boy”.
“Jaidyn was very attached to myself; he was a very happy little boy,” she said.
“He was what I would call a mommy’s boy; attached to my hip. If I would leave the house he would cry for me all the time.”
Prosecutors allege Mr Pallant killed Jaidyn by striking him in the head with the metal leg of a table lamp while he had been left in his care in September 2019.
Crown Prosecutor Mark Gibson KC told the jury Mr Pallant allegedly struck the toddler in a “short but profound” period of stress and frustration.
The court heard Mr Pallant and Ms Saggers had begun dating the month prior after being introduced by a mutual friend, with the accused man moving into her Langwarrin rental a short time later.
In a text message from mid-August shown to the jury, Ms Saggers tells Mr Pallant she had “never fallen for someone so quickly before”.
In late August, the court heard Ms Saggers found a white bookcase had fallen over in Jaidyn’s bedroom with the young boy lying next to it.
There was a bruise under his eye.
Ms Saggers said, at the time, she didn’t think much of it and moved the bookcase so it wouldn’t happen again.
“I just thought it was an accident that Jaidyn had done,” she said.
“Little boys are boys, they always hurt themselves.”
But, the court heard, the same day Ms Saggers also told ex-partner, Paul McAllister, who she was still friends with, she was suspicious Mr Pallant had caused the bruise.
“I said I believe Brendan may have hurt Jaidyn,” she said.
“He said if I thought Brendan had hurt Jaidyn to get him out of my house right away.”
She was questioned by Mr Gibson on whether she did take any steps to kick Mr Pallant out, responding; “no”.
“Because of financial reasons, because I enjoyed his company and because we were doing drugs together,” Ms Saggers said.
On September 1, just three days later, Ms Saggers returned home from the supermarket and found a “massive bruise” under his other eye.
“The book case was on the floor and Jaidyn was on the bed; bum in the air and sucking his thumb,” she said.
“I went in to check, to see him a bit closer, and I seen (sic) a massive bruise.”
She told the jury this time she didn’t think it was an accident because the white cube storage unit “could not do that much to a little boy’s face”.
Jurors were shown two photographs taken in the minutes after of the bookcase lying in the middle of the room and of Jaidyn’s bruised, bloody and swollen face.
The following day, Mr Gibson said that Ms Saggers took photographs of both of her sons to use as a reference before leaving for a cleaning job in Tyab.
He told the court the young child’s body was discovered shortly after 4pm on September 2 and, despite efforts from emergency services, was unable to be saved.
The court heard Mr Pallant was allegedly stressed amid ongoing discussions with the Department of Health and Human Services about wanting contact with his three children.
In his opening address on Thursday, barrister Rishi Nathwani said questions would be raised over whether bruises sustained by Jaidyn occurred before Mr Pallant started to live at the same address.
He told the jury Mr Pallant may not have been the last person to see the child alive and said Ms Saggers had been “inconsistent” with what she told people about her son’s bruising.
Ms Saggers will return before the Supreme Court on Monday to continue giving evidence.
The trial, before Justice Jane Dixon, continues.