A THUG was jailed after viciously beating a three-year-old boy he was minding leaving him with a broken skull.
Lewis Davies claimed the terrible injuries were the result of the toddler falling off a chair.
But medics said they were more consistent with being hit by a car or falling out of a window.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Davies was looking after the child at a his mum’s house in Birkenhead when he attacked the toddler.
Henry Riding, prosecuting, said the first attack was when the boy’s mum was at work.
Davies, 23, texted her a picture of marks to his head saying they were caused when he had a epileptic fit while carrying him and he dropped the boy when he passed out.
But a month later the boy was injured again with Davies saying he had fallen from his favourite chair, banging his head.
The mum of the child, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, asked him to send a picture of the injury and was “horrified” to see his head was hugely swollen and inflamed.
She rushed home to find the boy eating a sandwich and watching television, but when she called him over she said the way he got up was “awful”.
Mr Riding said: “He stumbled as he did so and looked clumsy as if drunk, his head was to one side and he was off balance. His head was bruised and swollen to the front and back and his right eye was very bruised. ”She immediately rang 999.”
Paramedics took him to hospital where he was treated for three skull fractures, bleeding on the brain, bruising to his genitals and injuries to his arm and foot.
The boy also suffered congenital health problems which meant he was already more vulnerable than the average child.
Davies, who was not the boy’s dad, acted “sheepish” and insisted he had got the injuries falling from a 16ins high chair while he was outside picking up cigarette butts.
Davies, of Orchard Court, Rock Ferry, had a trial last month and was found guilty by a jury of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and actual bodily harm.
Henry Riding said: “The Crown does not know and will never know exactly what happened.
“There must have been multiple incidents to cause that sort of injury.
“The court must ask itself if there was some kind of weapon used.
“This child has either been thrown about on more than one occasion or hit with something on more than one occasion.” Henry Gow, defending Davies, said he had a “tragic background” including a fire in which his brother was killed and Davies may have suffered a brain injury.
He also said he had been the victim of domestic violence himself as a small boy and that “victims often become abusers in later life”.
“He was left in a position to look after a demanding child, a position he was totally unsuitable for.
“Everyone who knows this young man is at a total loss to explain what has happened.
“He’s a polite, quiet unassuming young man.
“This must have been some kind of explosion or loss of control.”
Judge Brian Lewis said: “To have achieved injuries of that scale the attacks must have been consistent and vicious.
“This really was a dreadful injury. Both he and you were lucky it wasn’t significantly worse.
“You showed no remorse for what you did.”
He jailed Davies for nine years for the grievous bodily harm and 18 months concurrently for the assault for a total of nine years.
Judge Lewis added: “That boy had quite enough problems as it was without what turned out to be persistent cruelty at your hands.”
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