A woman charged with shaking a ten-month-old child so severely it suffered head injuries retained new defence counsel yesterday after spending the opening day of her trial defending herself.

On Monday, Magistrate Tyrone Chin ordered the almost three-year-old case to go ahead in the interest of justice, even though Jacquelyn Fubler's lawyer, Leo Mills, had withdrawn from the case. Fubler, 28, of Pearman's Hill West, Warwick, was left to defend herself as the court viewed photographs of bruises on the infant's arms and legs and heard one medical witness describe visible injuries to the child.

Fubler, who ran the Noah's Ark Day Care in Warwick, has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Stephen Ebbin on July 6, 2001.

Wearing dark sunglasses, Fubler quickly left the court room yesterday with lawyer Mark Pettingill after Mr. Chin agreed to adjourn the case and allow the defence time to review the file.

Over the sighs of frustration from Stephen's family members, Senior Crown Counsel Lloyd Rayney told the court he agreed with the adjournment.

On Monday, Dr. Alexander Baron told the court that Stephen would have had to be shaken back and forth at a high velocity resulting in what in his opinion was an internal brain injury. Dr. Baron also said Stephen's height, weight, and head circumference prior to July 2001 were all in the normal range. Head circumference in a child indicates normal brain growth, and a sudden rise means there is extra fluid accumulation in the brain.

"There was a dramatic increase in head size immediately after the event of July 2001," he said.

"My opinion is that the residual fluid directly resulted from trauma in or around July 6, 2001." Dr. Baron also told the court that Stephen's weight and height were normal until sixteen months of age after which he fell off the growth curve.

"The height gain lags behind the weight gain in cases where where there is residual fluid on the brain and that is the pattern Stephen is showing."

His evidence went unchallenged by Fubler.

The trial continues today.