A 21-year-old man who punched and threw a ten- week-old baby at a sofa has been jailed for just 11 years despite the new-born being left with “catastrophic injuries”.
The attack on the defenceless baby took place in 2017 when the man was minding her at a Co. Louth residence.
The accused said that the baby had been crying and screaming for some time and this had continued after he changed her nappy.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons told gardai: “Something in me just snapped” Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court heard, The Sun reports.
The baby girl suffered series injuries after the defendant punched and shook her while holding her arm before he threw her at a sofa. As a result of the assault the baby suffered a number of skull fractures, rib fractures, a displaced femur fracture and a fracture to the front of her pelvis.
The attack resulted in the baby suffering oxygen deprivation which has caused brain damage and left her wheelchair bound and severely disabled for the rest of her life.
Accorindg to The Sun, the mother of the baby girl said in a statement:
“She will never feed herself, never wash herself, never go to school and make friends. She will never walk up the aisle.”
Judge McCourt who described the incident as “an appalling attack by a grown man on a defenceless infant” handed down a 12 and half year prison sentence for the defendant who plead guilty to guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm but suspended the final 12 months.
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