A dad has been found guilty of murdering his seven-month-old son by inflicting ‘frankly obscene’ injuries.
Kane Kennedy, 20, was said to ‘bad-tempered’ when he could not get hold of cannabis to smoke.
Preston Crown Court heard he forcibly got hold of Oskar Jobey-Kennedy’s testicles, by either gripping, pinching or twisting them, and then pushed his fingers down the throat of the defenceless baby.
He then placed his hand over the mouth of the child who was smothered to death.
Kennedy denied murder between September 30 and October 1 last year and tried to blame Oskar’s mother, Tia Jobey, but a jury did not believe his account.
Kennedy, formerly of Heysham, will be sentenced on December 15. While Jobey, 19, of Morecambe, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing or allowing the death of a child, she was sentenced to 30 months in a young offender institution.
Paramedics were called shortly on October 1 to a report that Oskar had been found unresponsive. He was taken to Royal Lancaster Infirmary but was pronounced dead soon after arrival.
Multiple non-accidental injuries were identified in the post-mortem exmaination, with a total of 13 marks to his face and neck.
There was also bruising to both testicles with the jury being told that such injuries would have caused ‘immense pain’ when Oskar was alive.
The court heard Jobey and Kennedy started arguing two months previously over his use of cannabis.
Jobey told police that Kennedy would be ‘stressy’ when he could not smoke cannabis which ‘makes him paranoid about everything’.
She admitted it was not a good relationship and that she should have left Kennedy but she was scared of being alone.
Stuart Denney QC, representing Jobey, said his client had fallen ‘head over heels in love’ with Kennedy when she was 16-years-old and it was her first proper relationship. Jobey’s affections for him effectively ‘blinded her to reality’, the barrister said.
The jury heard the pair had exchanged Facebook messages in the months before in which Jobey confronted Kennedy about him sticking his finger down her son’s throat.
Jobey told police she thought Kennedy would change but when she learned the extent of the injuries inflicted on Oskar when arrested in February she ended the relationship.
The judge said he did not accept she could not foresee the risk of death.
Read here more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/12/08/dad-murdered-7-month-old-son-by-twisting-his-testicles-and-smothering-him-6308612/#ixzz4SS8dDnYX
