Crown: Tuzo had an `obligation to protect' child Defence plan to appeal `perverse' verdict Sharina Anne Tuzo was yesterday found guilty of the manslaughter of her five-month-old godson Saed Young after a jury decided she did nothing to protect the child from her battering boyfriend.

Speaking outside the Supreme Court after the unanimous verdict, the boy's mother Roshea Young said: "This is justice for Saed even though there is nothing that can bring back my son. I am glad this has been done in his memory.'' Senior Crown counsel Brian Calhoun, who led the prosecution, said the verdict should send a clear message to parents and carers in Bermuda that they have a responsibility to look after children entrusted to their care.

Mr. Calhoun said: "It was a difficult case for everyone, and hopefully the message established by this jury that will go out throughout Bermuda is that those taking care of children have an obligation to protect their safety and health.'' Saed suffered a catalogue of horrific injuries, including bite marks to his face, a broken collar bone and multiple fractures to the skull. But Tuzo maintained she never saw her boyfriend Jermaine Pearman harming the child during the ten days he was in their care.

Medical experts testified that the baby would be screaming in agony on August 26, 1997, suffering the fatal injuries to his head and neck, but Tuzo claimed she never heard a thing.

The jury of six men and six women took two hours 15 minutes to unanimously find Tuzo, 20, guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of gross negligence and reckless disregard for Saed's safety.

Tuzo, who was impassive throughout the trial apart from dabbing her eyes when she was shown pictures of Saed's battered body, showed no emotion when the verdict was announced.

Her lawyer Philip Perinchief announced last night that she was appealing against the conviction because it is "perverse and goes against the facts of the case and even the theory of the Crown''.

Mr. Perinchief said Tuzo is adamant she is innocent and feels the jury had been swayed by sympathy for Saed's family.

Ms Young, 23, wept hysterically in the courtroom after the jury left the room and had to be comforted by family and friends.

The verdict is believed to be the first time a court in Bermuda has convicted someone of manslaughter due to gross negligence and reckless disregard for the safety of a baby.

Pearman, 27, has already pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Saed. The Crown did not contest a defence assertion that it was Pearman, not Tuzo, who carried out the attacks on the baby.

Tuzo's culpability was that she knew the abuse was happening and that Saed's health was at risk, but failed to do anything about it.

More on verdict, Page 4 Tuzo guilty of manslaughter Pearman will be sentenced on November 1. Tuzo was remanded in custody yesterday and will also appear on November 1 when a date will be set for sentencing. Psychological and social reports have been ordered on him.

Chief Justice Austin Ward yesterday ordered a social inquiry report on Tuzo, who now has a baby boy the same age as Saed was when he died.

Tuzo and Pearman, the child's godparents, took charge of the baby for what was supposed to be a week on August 16, 1997 to give Ms Young, who was living in a single mother's hostel in Pembroke, a break.

Ms Young tried to get the child back from Tuzo's house in Bob's Valley Lane, Sandys Parish, after a week but was unable to do so. On August 26, she discovered the healthy, happy child she left with the pair was now unconscious, underweight and dying.

Ms Young rushed Saed to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital but he died three days later from multiple fractures to the skull.

Dr. Carol Ferris, the emergency room doctor who examined Saed, said he was the "most obviously battered and abused child I have ever seen in my career''.

During his ten days at Bob's Valley Lane, Saed underwent a progressively more violent ordeal at Pearman's hands which culminated on August 26 when he was dealt massive blows to his head which fractured his skull at the side and back, and had his collar bone broken.

No clear explanation has been given as to how Saed sustained the fatal blows, but three doctors testified that they could not have occurred by accident.

Mention was made of Pearman tripping over kittens and falling onto a hard surface while holding Saed. But medical experts said this could not account for the multiple fractures to the child's skull.

Tuzo said Saed had fallen 18 inches from a bed to a carpeted floor on the morning of August 26 but this was also dismissed as a cause of the fatal blows.

On another occasion, Pearman could provide no explanation for how Saed had ended up on the floor when he was in his sturdy stroller. Tuzo was to admit that she realised Pearman must have been responsible.

Tuzo testified that Pearman was rough with the child every day: he would shake him in anger, repeatedly push his head onto the mattress when he tried to raise it, "play punch'' him, and yank him up by the arm.

Her story was that although Pearman was rough with the child and "tormented'' him, she never saw him harm him and she claimed that had she believed Pearman was a danger to Saed, she would have removed him or the baby.

Under cross-examination from Mr. Calhoun, however, a more sinister picture emerged, showing Tuzo was aware of the abuse and decided to do nothing.

She admitted that some of Pearman's actions were not playing and that she knew the shaking and yanking by the arm could threaten the child's health. She admitted she knew Pearman was abusing the baby.

She also admitted she knew Pearman must have been responsible for the incident when Saed was thrown out of his stroller and that she had no basis for believing the abuse would stop.

Tuzo, who was 18 at the time, said she recognised after four days that the baby's character had changed: he was less lively and slept more, but she thought that was due to teething.

She saw the injuries to his right cheek (but didn't recognise it as a bite) and marks on his left ear and eye, but didn't believe they needed medical attention.

Tuzo also admitted she did not tell the child's mother or a doctor about the abuse because it would land Pearman in trouble, and that she was protecting him.

The jury rejected her claim that she genuinely believed on August 26 that Saed was getting warmer and sweating because of a fever or a cold and that she had no idea he was in danger.

Crucially, the jury rejected her story that she neither saw nor heard Saed being beaten on August 26 when he suffered a fractured skull and collar bone and, according to medical testimony, would have been screaming with pain.

Mr. Calhoun said Tuzo was torn between her love for Pearman and her duty to protect Saed.

In summing up on Monday, Mr. Calhoun said: "What happened to Saed was the type of thing he was in danger of from the first day. Right from the outset, Tuzo should have removed this child from the danger, and as time went, inevitably it escalated.'' Mr. Perinchief said last night that Tuzo was "thoroughly upset and does feel that she has been found guilty wrongly.

"She is remorseful about the death of the child, but it is her strongly-held view that she is not guilty and the jury misapprehended the facts and had been swayed more by the death of the child than the circumstances that brought it about. She feels they felt sympathy towards the child and family.''