Labourer charged with beating baby to death

A 40-YEAR-OLD labourer of Upper Waterhole, Cocorite, was yesterday charged with the murder of Issac Joseph, who would have turned two next week Thursday.

Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Hen-derson gave instructions to Sgt Nandram Moonilal of the St James CID to charge the labourer with murder. He will appear before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate today. The child’s mother, 16-year-old Nadine Joseph, said she left her son in the care of a man on Saturday and went away. When she returned at around 6 pm, she found the child lying on a bed and frothing from the mouth. He was semi-conscious and had bruises at the side of his buttocks, chin and a gash on his upper lip. The child was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospi-tal and transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex where he died around 11 am on Sunday. An autopsy revealed that the child died from a ruptured stomach, caused by blunt abdominal trauma.