Baby Elijah’s life began with a struggle. Born prematurely, he spent his first three months in the hospital, reliant on oxygen and breathing support. It was a challenging start for both him and his mother, Elyce, filled with hope and uncertainty.

Finally, on January 13, 2024, Elijah was discharged from the hospital, ready to begin life at home under Elyce’s care. However, the joy of this new chapter was tragically short-lived. On January 19, just six days after his release, the infant’s life was cut short by a violent act.

Early that morning, around 4 a.m., Elyce’s boyfriend, Benjamin Joseph Swann, attempted to calm Elijah, who had started crying. Shortly after, Elyce heard a disturbing loud bang from Elijah’s room.

Swann emerged with Elijah in his arms, handing the baby to Elyce with an angry outburst before leaving to prepare a bottle. It was then that Elyce noticed something terribly wrong. Elijah was making an abnormal wheezing sound, struggling to breathe, a moment that signaled the beginning of a heartbreaking reality.

That’s when Elyce realised her son was making an unusual wheezing sound and appeared to be gasping for breath.

Swann told her to wait when she suggested they call an ambulance, but she ignored him after noticing her son was turning blue.

Elijah was taken to hospital by paramedics, and doctors ultimately determined he had suffered a non-survivable brain injury due to a blunt force trauma to the head.

He was taken off life support and died in his mother’s arms in the early hours of January 20 at only 115 days old.

In the immediate aftermath and when he was arrested on February 8, Swann denied he had struck Elijah, pushed the little boy or dropped him.

He also deflected the blame to Elyce, claiming she had been suffering from severe post-natal depression and was capable of doing something to her son.

Swann continued to deny he killed Elijah for another 20 months before he finally pleaded guilty to child homicide in the Victorian Supreme Court.

Elyce confronted her former partner during his plea hearing on Thursday, saying she regretted bringing his “cancerous evil” into their lives.

“I believed his lies when he said he wanted to be Elijah’s stepdad,” she told the court.

“I never should have trusted him.”

Elyce said it had been her lifelong ambition to become a mother, but now her days were filled with continuous devastation.

“I had to watch the colour drain from my son’s skin,” she said.

“This unimaginable pain … is one that no one should have to suffer.”

Swann appeared to wipe away tears as the statement was read aloud, but his barrister, Rishi Nathwani KC, conceded he could not say there was evidence of remorse.

Swann had been in a volatile relationship with Elyce and was seeking help for anger management issues and drug use in the lead-up to Elijah’s death, Nathwani said.

But Swann had no prior convictions for violence against children, and he did not have a history of being abusive towards Elijah, the barrister argued.

Swann carried out the single act of violence against the baby boy while he was frustrated, tired and angry, Nathwani said.

It was accepted that Swann then tried to deflect blame towards the mother, but Nathwani said admitting his actions sooner would not have changed the outcome for the little boy.

Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson KC also accepted that was the case.

“The injury itself was so severe that Elijah’s fate was sealed from the outset,” Gibson told the court.

The prosecutor argued deterrence was important in sentencing as Swann needed to know he could not take out his anger against a child, even when he was tired and frustrated.

Justice James Gorton will sentence Swann at a later date.