“It’s terrible, the man she loved took her baby away”

Bryan, a 29-year-old Belgian father, was arrested by police in Avelgem on suspicion of shaking his four-month-old baby Hardin. The toddler was admitted to hospital in Ghent on Monday in a very critical condition, with severe shaken baby symptoms. He eventually died on Monday afternoon. The mother, Evy, 19, was unable to say goodbye to her baby.

In the columns of the Nieuwsblad, Evy’s sister Jasmien explains that the young mother had already been to the hospital several times because “Hardin was not feeling well”. “He was often out of breath and had panic attacks. At the hospital, they sent them home every time”, Jasmien explains.

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But on Sunday, Evy insisted on having her son thoroughly examined. After a brain scan, it turned out that the baby was suffering from a brain haemorrhage. He was immediately transferred to the UZ in Ghent. But the next day, Hardin died. Evy never got to say goodbye to her child. She was arrested, along with her partner, on Monday, and then released. Bryan was transferred to prison. “She was finally allowed to go home, but she wasn’t able to say goodbye to him. It’s inhumane,” his sister laments.

Bryan admitted to shaking his son because he was “crying a lot.” “At some point, it was too much for him and he did what he did, impulsively,” Bryan’s lawyer told our colleagues.

Jasmien explains that her family did not like Bryan. “He had already hit Hardin once, when he was barely a month old. He and Evy broke up for a while, then they reconciled. He seemed to have changed, he helped more with the housework. Evy lost her father four years ago, she did not want to see her little boy grow up without a father either,” Jasmien says, adding that the family is very angry. “I had never seen my mother like this. Bryan asked if he could contact us, but we refused. For my sister, it is terrible. The man she loved took her baby from her. Hardin was not yet four months old,” she concludes.