The 19-year-old woman cried this afternoon, as she told a judge how the father of her unborn child choked her and punched her in the stomach last month.
Jamie Stuart was seven months pregnant when she went to see her estranged husband about why their bank account was overdrawn, she testified at a preliminary hearing. She said Brian Stuart, her recently separated husband, became enraged, choked her and punched her in the stomach.
Such cases are not uncommon. Experts say women in abusive relationships may find violence escalates during their pregnancies.
Judith McFarlane, a domestic violence expert at Texas Women’s University, told the San Antonio Express-News:
“The abuser sees this as taking the focus away from him. And when the attention is taken away from him by the unborn child, that unborn child becomes the focus of his rage.”
The target of such violence is often direct their anger toward the woman’s stomach, Marc Shapiro, a professor of trauma surgery, told WebMD:
“The fetus is most at risk during the third trimester. I’ve seen fetuses that were shot or situations in which the mother was kicked in the stomach and spontaneously aborted. Pregnant women get scratched, punched, stabbed, shot, and sexually assaulted. It’s rare to have to do a Cesarean section to save a fetus, but it happens.”
Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens ruled the case should proceed to trial. Brian Stuart, 20, pleaded not guilty to aggravated battery. His trial is tentatively set for Dec. 1.
2 Comments
I can’t recall the names now, but the friend who testified against the father of Chelsea Brooks’ baby, didn’t he say one of their ideas was to beat Chelsea to induce a spontaneous abortion? They were trying to come up with a way to keep the father of the baby out of prison for having sex with a minor. Anecdotal evidence surely points to men abusing pregnant women with the idea that a miscarriage would relieve them of 18 years of child support or render any paternity question moot. I’m just thinking there could well be other or additional motivations for the abuser.
Yes, Cindy, you remember that testimony correctly from Everett Gentry. Prosecutors tell me that pregnant women get punched in the stomach, because “that’s where they’re most vulnerable.” I don’t know whether the motivation is getting out of responsibility, or just being jealous of not getting the attention themselves, as the articles I’ve linked to suggest. The articles also talk about pregnant women in abusive relationships being more likely to be killed. In the case of Chelsea Brooks, which you site, prosecutors say that was the motivation: to get rid of the baby. The father of Brooks’ child, Elgin Robinson, is set for trial Sept. 22.