Lawyers continued closing arguments yesterday in the case of a former day care owner charged with severely injuring a ten-month-old boy.

The retrial of 28-year-old Jacquelyn Fubler, of Pearman's Hill West, Warwick continued before Magistrate Tyrone Chin.

In March, the former Noah's Ark Day Care owner admitted to causing grievous bodily harm to Stephen Ebbin, who was in her care on July 6, 2001.

Although Fubler initially entered a guilty plea during her trial in March, she has since denied shaking Stephen hard enough to cause symptoms consistent with shaken baby syndrome.

The case was then sent back to Magistrates' Court for retrial in an attempt to determine how the injuries occurred. Tomorrow, Mr. Chin will make his decision on the case.

Yesterday, Fubler's lawyer Mark Pettingill told Mr. Chin that while Stephen had been at Fubler's day care, he had also been in the care of members of his family over the three-day period when the injuries might have occurred.

Mr. Pettingill said evidence from Dr. Alexander Barron, Stephen's paediatrician, indicated the baby could have been shaken on July 3 or 4.

In March, Dr. Barron told the court Stephen had an internal brain injury consistent with being shaken back and forth, at a high velocity.

He said the injuries were so severe blood vessels in the child's brain had burst, a classic indication of shaken baby syndrome.

Scans of the brain taken after the alleged assault showed there was permanent fluid on Stephen's brain which caused a dramatic increase in head circumference.

Dr. Barron said the fluid that had accumulated in Stephen's brain directly resulted from trauma in or around July 6, 2001.

Experts have predicted that Stephen will never reach his full potential as a result of the injuries.