By George P. Hassett

Dr. Carol Allen, a pediatrician for 33 years, had to pause Thursday to maintain her composure when telling a jury about the injuries a 23-month-old girl allegedly received at the hands of a former Somerville police officer.

“I had never seen anything like it before. I was shocked, that’s what I recall about that day,” said Allen at the trial of Keith Winfield, a former Somerville police officer accused of rape of a child.

Middlesex County prosecutors allege Winfield sexually assaulted a 23-month-old relative he was babysitting in October 2005 with a hot object at his home in Melrose. The assault caused serious burns to the victim, which developed over the next 24 to 36 hours and forced her into the hospital for one month.

In court testimony, the mother and grandfather of the victim described her as “playful” and “very joyous” in the days leading up to Oct. 13, 2005. However on that day when she returned from Winfield’s home in Melrose the victim was reserved, tearful and suffering from injuries to her genitals that grew increasingly worse as the night wore on, said the mother.

“She had her head on my shoulder crying all night, she would not leave my side,” she said. “When I changed her diapers I saw the redness and freaked out.”

The child was taken to a hospital the next morning and police were contacted after doctors suspected the girl had been sexually and physically abused. Three weeks later investigators interviewed Winfield at the Melrose Police Department. A recording of the interview was played by the prosecution in court Friday and jurors heard Winfield recount the week he and his wife babysat the child.

“I don’t remember anything out of the ordinary or anyone coming into my house,” he said on the tapes.

Winfield told investigators that on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005 the day the rape allegedly occurred he was alone with the child for an hour while his wife went to the library. He said he changed the girl’s diaper that day for the first time since she had been staying at the house while her mother worked and noticed a “really red diaper rash.”

“Not what they said her injuries were, just really red that’s the only way to describe it,” he said.

The victim’s mother said that when she called Winfield’s home from work that day her daughter would not respond to her over the phone and stayed silent when asked how she was. By the next day the child was being treated for her injuries.

In cross examination, Winfield’s lawyer Doug Louison questioned the child’s mother and grandparents about old injuries the girl was found to be suffering from when admitted to the hospital after the rape. Doctors found the child broke her wrist two weeks to one month earlier and had two broken ribs that she had injured ten days to 1 month earlier, he said.

“Were you aware [the victim] was walking around with a broken wrist for two weeks?” he asked the child’s mother.

“No,” she said.

“Did [the victim] complain about fractures to two ribs that doctors found were ten days to 1 month old?”

“No,” she said. The mother said she first learned of the injuries on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005 the day after she brought her daughter to the hospital.

Louison also asked witnesses about other people who had access to the victim’s home the week the rape took place. The victim’s family had been hosting friends from Canada that week who left three days before she showed signs of injury. And in his opening statement Louison told jurors they would not hear any forensic evidence pointing to Winfield, or even a male, as the person responsible for the rape.

“There is no evidence at all pointing to him other than one hour out of the 12 where the doctor said the injuries occurred,” he said.

Winfield joined the Somerville Police Department in 2000. He was placed on administrative leave after city officials learned he was being investigated for the rape. He was indicted nine months later in August 2006. In the trial’s first week a small group of Winfield’s friends and family sat in the front row watching the proceedings. At one point, while a witness described the victim’s injuries, a woman sitting with Winfield’s family began to cry.

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said Winfield is ineligible to get his job back even if he is found not guilty. “He is an ex-Somerville cop now,” he said.

Patrolmen’s Union President Jack Leuchter said he hopes Winfield is found not guilty “not on a technicality, but because the jury actually finds him not guilty of the charges.”

“I wouldn’t want to believe anyone I know, especially a fellow police officer, is capable of such a horrible thing,” he said.

[Editor‚Äôs note: The Somerville News does not publish any information identifying victims of rape.]