February 14, 2025
Anthony Karl Kurucz was convicted of manslaughter in the death of his three-month old son almost six years ago.

Legal landscape surrounding cases of shaken babies may have to be updated

Parenting can be terribly frustrating but that doesn’t justify such conduct and maybe, in the future, will result in murder convictions

It should be painfully clear to almost every Canadian parent that the best way to quiet a crying baby is not to violently shake the child until it stops breathing.

But Anthony Karl Kurucz isn’t “almost every Canadian.”

Kurucz was convicted of manslaughter this week in the death of his three-month-old son almost six years ago.

Justice Glen Poelman found Kurucz didn’t intend the deadly consequences of his actions with little Jayden Cyluck Kurucz the afternoon of April 24, 2018, and acquitted him of the more serious charge he faced of second-degree murder.

Kurucz admitted to an undercover police officer during a so-called Mr. Big operation that he was frustrated with the child and shook him to quiet him down and also tossed him onto a couch.

In final arguments in January, defence counsel Darren Mahoney suggested if Poelman was to conclude the confession was reliable it would amount to a case of shaken baby syndrome which historically led to manslaughter convictions.

Mahoney said convicting Kurucz of murder would have changed the “legal landscape” established in such cases.

But in 2024, it’s probably time to change that landscape, at least in most cases.

Interesting Read…