A Fatal Case of Infanticide by Battering

The battered child syndrome, a clinical condition in infants who received serious physical abuse, is a frequent and apparently increasing cause of sudden death in young children. This paper deals with a fatal case of infanticide by battering. A male child aged 3 years, the victim in this case, was the adulterine son of a mother who went out to work every night in a cabaret. Therefore he had been brought up by his aunt. The aunt bashed his head against the wall, inflicting head trauma. Three days later he was attacked by headache, vomiting, and convulsion and died after 3 hours or so. But he was not adomitted to a hospital. At autopsy the following findings were noted : subdural hemorrhage