A MAN who shook a two-month-old baby so hard she was left severely brain damaged was jailed for nine years yesterday.
Donald Loudon had blamed the child's mother for the horrific injuries, which also included multiple fractures, some of which were caused by twisting her leg.
Loudon, 26, of Firtree Place, Newmains, Lanarkshire, was convicted at the High Court i
n Glasgow of attempting to murder the baby between 14 June, 2006 and 28 August, 2006. He was also found guilty of kicking the child's mother when she was pregnant.
Sentencing Loudon, Judge Ian Peebles, QC, told him: "This was a wholly appalling crime and the result of your actions have had a catastrophic effect on the child. She has been left with a lifelong disability.
"This was a child of only a few months old who had the rest of her life to look forward to and who now faces horrendous difficulties as a result of your actions."
The judge added a further six months to Loudon's sentence for his attack on the child's mother.
At an earlier hearing, the court was told Loudon often looked after the baby and her two sisters at their home in Newmains, Lanarkshire.
After one such occasion in August 2006 the baby was rushed to hospital.
The full article contains 225 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
