Just as we were publishing a thorough debunking of the junk science behind Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) in 2019, a 21 year old father in Victoria, Jesse Harvey, was sentenced to six years jail for the murder of his baby son by shaking him to death. Wrongly, as it turns out, but that is a typical SBS story.
Jesse Harvey has served his sentence and speaking out, maintaining his innocence. The final episode of Diagnosing Murder (podcast) interviews Harvey for the first time. He said he was speaking out because “I spent the last six years in jail for something I didn’t do. I lost my son. And these people need to be held accountable because it’s going to continue to happen.”
Who are “these people”? Michael Bachelard and Ruby Schwartz of The Age report (November 2, 2025):
Casey’s death certificate, obtained by this masthead’s investigative podcast, Diagnosing Murder, reveals a South Australian coroner concluded the boy’s cause of death was “aspiration and tracheitis [choking] on a background of acquired brain injury with epilepsy and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy” – a serious congenital heart condition.
Diagnosing Murder is investigating shaken baby syndrome. A list obtained by the podcast shows the diagnosis has played a role in jailing well over 100 people in this country since 1995. The podcast raises questions about whether the diagnosis is based on reliable scientific evidence.
In Harvey’s trial in 2019, child abuse specialists from the Victorian Forensic Paediatric Medical Service (VFPMS) acknowledged Casey had a heart condition, including a heart murmur, based on the findings of a Royal Children’s Hospital cardiologist.
They said the enlargement of the seven-week-old’s heart was “moderate” and that it was unlikely to have anything to do with what had caused his brain injury.
But in a report produced at the request of the Diagnosing Murder podcast, forensic pathologist Stephen Cordner observed five problems with the prosecution’s medical evidence against Harvey that “seem not to have been explored, or were insufficiently explored” at his trial.
In response to questions about the case, the Royal Children’s Hospital said it would be inappropriate to comment.
At the trial, it was revealed that baby Casey spent three days in hospital in the lead up to the seizure that his father saw. He was treated for an infection, fever, irritability, poor feeding and vomiting. A lumbar puncture showed blood in his cerebrospinal fluid.
However, asked at the trial about this, the expert doctor said Casey’s illness did not show a medical cause for his seizure. It was “a separate thing from what occurred [the alleged shaking],” they said.
It’s a tragic story that damns those who accept the junk science, compounded by the death since of both the young son and Jesse’s mother. SBS is another dark corner of the criminal justice system which is left unattended by those who are in a position to put it right.