8-month-old Elsie Scully-Hicks has allegedly been killed by her adoptive father following “a single event”, a court has heard.

31-Year-Old Matthew Scully-Hicks, of Delabole, Cornwall, denies murdering Elsie Scully-Hicks at their Cardiff home.

The baby was rushed to hospital after becoming unresponsive but she died four days later after suffering extensive damage to her brain.

A consultant pediatrician has told Cardiff Crown Court Elsie “suffered significant trauma”.

“I think that it would be improbable that all these things arose separately,” Dr Marian McGowan told the jury.

“The likelihood is that they are part of a single event. I think that the only explanation is that the child suffered significant trauma.”

Dr. McGowan said that she thought Elsie would have been distressed and become unwell quite rapidly – and her condition would have deteriorated so quickly that she would have become unconscious.

She said that the management of Elsie’s head injuries in hospital was “entirely appropriate” and in line with guidelines.

Mr.Scully-Hicks, who’s a part-time fitness instructor, and his husband Craig Scully-Hicks had formally adopted Elsie two weeks earlier.

The court has previously heard that Elsie’s injuries were “very typical” of babies who have been shaken and her injuries were likened to those of a “car crash” victim.

Dr. McGowan prepared a report after seeing reports from other medical doctors and Elsie’s notes.

She said that Elsie had been a healthy baby before she died in May 2016.

Asked by Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, if she had seen any reports of significant trauma in Elsie’s past that would account for the injuries, Dr. McGowan replied saying: “No I haven’t.”

The trial is still ongoing.

A Mother Faces Jail Time After Refusing To Vaccinate Her Son

With the numerous amounts of research proving the effectiveness as well as the massive amounts of benefits of child vaccinations – there are still parents who just plain refuse to vaccinate their kids.

Legally, Parents do have the right to ignore the advice of medical professionals as well as scientific data and can abstain from adhering to a vaccination schedule in many states in the US.

But this mom is taking her stance against vaccines to the absolute extreme.

A Michigan mom of one young boy, Rebecca Bredow, says that she would rather face imprisonment than get her child vaccinated.

“I would rather go to jail for standing up for what I believe in than vaccinate my child,” Bredow told ABC News recently. She believes the decision to vaccinate your child is a “personal choice.”

Bredow and her ex-husband are now at odds over their son’s vaccinations. When they were married, Bredow claims that her then-husband agreed to space out her son’s vaccines, however, changed his mind once they separated.

The father now wishes for his son to receive all his vaccinations. She was court-ordered to bring him up to the “fullest extent medically allowed,” which means that she has only a few days to get her son up-to-date on eight vaccines in one dose.

The state of Michigan does allow for parents to opt-out of certain vaccines for non-medical reasons.

Bredow says that she had done her own research and decided spacing out son’s vaccines was the route she wanted to go.

“It wasn’t until they started grouping them together that I backed off of doing vaccines,” she told WXYZ Detroit.

According to court records which ABC News got access to – Bredow was ordered to vaccinate her son in November 2016, but as of September 2017 she still did not comply with the court order.

Whether the Mother ends up spending time in jail is for a judge to decide but it’s important to note that The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes the necessity of vaccines with regard to children’s health and safety.

On it’s website the AAP says “Vaccines have been part of the fabric of our society for decades and are the most significant medical innovation of our time,” and that “Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines save lives.”