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Australian held over ‘shaken baby’ death previously scrutinized for child abuse

Staff Report, Kyodo

Police on Tuesday arrested an Australian man on suspicion of shaking his 14-month-old daughter violently, causing brain hemorrhage and death.

The Metropolitan Police Department said Richard Alan Burrows, 36, of no specific address or occupation, is thought to have attacked Riona Shidonii Ito some time between 6 p.m. March 24 and 6:30 a.m. on March 25 at an apartment in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward.

Burrows has denied the charge. “I have nothing to say at this moment,” he was quoted saying.

The infant was rushed to a nearby hospital but was confirmed dead at about 8 a.m. on March 25. She suffered respiratory arrest attributed to subdural hematoma, an accumulation of blood outside the brain. Police said the death was typical of shaken baby syndrome.

Officers say Burrows lived at the address with his daughter and wife, who is in her 20s and was out at work at the time.

It was not the first time for Burrows to come under scrutiny for suspected mistreatment.

A child consultation center in Suginami Ward said he called 119 in May 2014 and reported that something was wrong with his daughter.

A doctor who treated the girl suspected shaken baby syndrome and reported the case to the child consultation center.

The center took Riona into custody in June the same year. The couple were interviewed more than 20 times and the center returned her to them at the end of the year.

The center said it would review its actions to see if more could have been done to prevent the tragic death.

“We have interviewed (the couple) a number of times, but we take the incident very gravely,” said an official at the consultation center. “We would like to come up with ways to improve the situation and prevent a recurrence after going through the measures we have taken.”

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  • Charlie Sommers

    Sometimes in a fit of desperation we do things that effect us for the rest of our lives. My heart goes out to the child that died as a result of this man’s actions but I can’t help feeling some sorrow for him too.

    • Hans Gruber

      If you have sympathy for a person who gets emotionally carried away and murders someone, do you also have sympathy for someone who gets emotionally carried away and rapes someone?

      • KobayashiDamien TakijiLucas

        would you prefer Charlie Sommers called for the man to be stoned to death in the town square?would that be more to your taste?

      • Firas Kraïem

        Life in prison will be sufficient. And no “sorrow”, please.

      • Charlie Sommers

        A very good reply sir. I have sympathy for all who have brains that don’t function properly. This man has destroyed his own life, A lengthy incarceration is punishment enough.

      • kension86

        Just because someone’s non-sympathetic to a criminal who made the same mistake twice or more DESPITE previous warning ? Would it be more to your taste if everybody’s a “bleeding heart” who feel for criminals for repeatedly committing crimes ?

        This is strawman at its finest, sir.

    • Firas Kraïem

      Male privilege at its finest.

      • Charlie Sommers

        Not male privilege, my sentiments would be exactly the same if a woman had committed this deed.

    • kension86

      Except that’s not the 1st time it happened. He did it before and had the child taken away after a doctor examined her. But he still hadn’t learned the lesson at the time.

  • wanderingpippin

    An article woefully short on detail. Why did it take more than half a year for him to be arrested? What kind of visa does he have? Was he of no fixed address at the time of the incident? Where was the mother?

    • KobayashiDamien TakijiLucas

      can you not read?

      • Carl

        S/he was responding to the first version of the article, which was indeed a minimal report. S/he is apparently unaware that stories on websites (and on wire services) do get updated over the day as a story develops and more information is obtained. Sometimes editors decide it is worth it to at least get a very basic story out first knowing that they can beef it up later, which is what happened here.