Abusive mum caught after leaving baby with 30 injuries in pram outside Great Barr Asda
A mum has been jailed after an Asda security guard spotted her baby's injuries.
Julija Priadina, 32, left her three-month-old outside the shop in Great Barr, Birmingham on 24 April 2020 while she walked the aisles drinking wine.
The child was found to have more than 30 injuries across her body, including a significant head trauma.
The mistreatment of the baby only came to light after the "binge-drinking" mum drew the attention of staff because she was intoxicated.
After leaving the store, she walked away from the pram causing a security guard to rush over and call emergency services.
Following an assessment in hospital, doctors found the baby had sustained a number of bruises and cuts as well as significant head trauma, with experts concluding it had been caused by a combination of "non-accidental" shaking and impact.
Priadina, 32, of Skipton Road, Ladywood, was jailed for three years and nine months in January.
However her case can only be reported now after her partner and the baby's father, Shoja-ul-din Omran, who she lived with was found not guilty of a single charge of child cruelty at Birmingham Crown Court.
Priadina pleaded guilty to child cruelty and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, but not before attempting to implicate two complete strangers in a bid to exonerate herself of the abuse, which she carried out in late April 2020.
Nina Ellin, prosecuting, said: "The defendant was interviewed once arrested. She gave an account of going out to Lidl and walking home.
"She said she was approached by two black males asking how she was. She didn't know them but decided to take them home.
"They had all been drinking and she left the flat to buy more alcohol and left her baby with the two men.
"When she returned her baby was crying but not visibly injured. The following morning she saw a bruise to the left cheek and her baby was crying.
"She didn't call the police or seek medical attention because she didn't speak English."
However, CCTV unraveled her claims. A witness did recall seeing two males help Priadina carry her pram upstairs on the evening of April 24, 2020.
Mr Omrany, a 54-year-old shopkeeper, returned home in the early afternoon of April 25, 2020 and had attended Asda with Priadina to purchase supplies before she walked out of the store without him.
He denied wilful neglect by failing to seek medical attention for his child. A jury took less than two hours to unanimously find him not guilty.
A blood sample revealed Priadina had consumed so much alcohol on the day of her arrest she would have been approximately three and a half times the drink-drive limit.
Mr Muller added: "Sober, one would have thought there's no problem here.
"She clearly had a catastrophic breakdown into alcohol abuse when she couldn't possibly care for her baby and no doubt was susceptible to reacting to her baby crying.
"It looks like she shook and gripped her baby very roughly. It was all relatively short-lived."
Mr Muller said his client suffered bereavement and grief issues following the loss of her parents and her young son in Lithuania, who died from sudden infant death syndrome.
Mr Muller added: "It must have been horrendous and now she has got to live with the fact she's done this. It is quite a catalogue.
"She moved across the world to the UK no doubt wanting a better life. When she got here things didn't turn out to be as rosy as she thought.
"She doesn't blame the co-accused [Mr Omrany, since acquitted]. He could have been more supportive. She had no support with the child.
"Whatever her bereavement or grief problem was it festered. Nobody was there to stop what was coming and she wasn't able to deal with it.
"That's why we are here. She had this alcohol crutch. She struggled as a new mum. The early days of Covid made that much worse."
Sentencing, Judge Roderick Henderson said: "This was arguably a life-threatening injury and the truth of this is this was a disastrous period of a few days where an otherwise good mother lost complete control because you had a very serious drink problem at the time."
Help & support
Alcohol Change UK - a national charity providing advice and support
Adfam - provides support for families affected by drugs and alcohol.
Drinkaware - an independent UK-wide alcohol education charity
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