January 21, 2014 - 9:21 AM
WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg murder trial has been told a foster child who died suddenly was frequently bruised in the months before his death.
Brenda Blacksmith testified at the second-degree murder trial of her husband, Roderick Blacksmith, that she would ask their own four children if they knew anything about the small bruises.
Cameron Ouskan (OO'-skahn) was 13 months old and living in the Blacksmith home in Gillam, Man., when he died in 2008.
His foster mother told court she never saw the other kids — all girls between one and nine years old at the time — intentionally hurt the baby.
The Crown has said it will present evidence that the boy suffered head injuries.
Brenda Blacksmith said Cameron had hurt his head somehow a few days before his death.
She testified she saw a smudge of blood on the carpet in the living room and her husband noticed a small cut on the baby's head.
"It wasn't bleeding. It was coagulating already," she testified Tuesday.
"He didn't seem bothered by the cut on his head."
Blacksmith said she washed the boy's head in the bath and he seemed fine afterward.
On Monday, the trial was shown a videotaped police interview in which Roderick Blacksmith said the baby liked to fall backwards and bump his head on the floor as a form of play.
He told police the baby had been put to bed on Nov. 12, 2008, and when Blacksmith went back to check on him, he was unresponsive and his mouth was filled with vomit.
The boy died in hospital the next day.
Brenda Blacksmith was not in the house at the time.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014