A man who is charged with punching a five-day-old baby in the face in a branch of Tesco has claimed he thought the infant was a toy doll.
David Hardy, 63, from Baguley, Greater Manchester, appeared in court on Thursday.
He is accused of approaching Elsie Temple as she lay in her carrycot inside a shopping trolley and punching her as her mother, Amy Duckers, looked on in horror. Elsie was left with a red mark on her face and was taken to hospital, where she was kept for seven hours.
Hardy admitted to punching the baby but pleaded not guilty to a charge of common assault because he said he had no intention of hitting a baby.
His lawyer, Chris Fallows, is quoted by Manchester Evening News as telling Manchester magistrates court: “This defendant [is] effectively a family man who has young children in the family and does not behave in a way that is suggested to this allegation. The crown suggests Mr Hardy deliberately punched a five-day-old baby to the face in a carrycot in a shopping trolley. The defendant says he believed – and this belief was prior to the incident – that he thought it was a doll.”
Fallows said Hardy’s claim that he thought the baby was a doll was supported by witness statements. “After the incident the defendant, who has never been in trouble before, had news reporters arrive at his door,” he said. “He was hung, drawn and quartered on social media and in the comments on news reports. It is conceded by the defendant that what occurred was unusual, bizarre and he acted rather foolishly. But the prosecution, despite evidence to the contrary, say that this was intentional.”
Fallows also said that Hardy had been “on the verge of suicide” and wished the case to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
A district judge granted him conditional bail and he will face a trial next month.
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