MUM’S ‘INTIMATE RELATIONS’ WITH BABY KILLER
Court hears cop interrupted lovers to tell them life support was being switched off
A MUM was caught having “intimate relations” in a hospital with the man who shook her daughter to death.
A police officer spotted Catherine Davidson in the sick embrace with Gordon McKay.
He said her head was whipping back and forward JANE FARQUHARSON, PROSECUTOR
A MUM left her dying baby to be in the arms of the man who inflicted fatal injuries on the tot.
Catherine Davidson’s five-month-old daughter Hayley was put on a life support machine after suffering a bleed on the brain.
Her boyfriend, ex-soldier Gordon McKay, had caused the catastrophic injuries by repeatedly shaking the baby.
But a court heard yesterday that in hospital, Davidson seemed more bothered about McKay than her dying daughter.
And a policewoman told how she found the couple involved in “intimate relations” in a family room when she went to tell them Hayley was about to die.
McKay, 38 was originally charged with murdering the child while he was looking after her at his home in Buckhaven, Fife, on Valentine’s Day 2016.
But yesterday he admitted killing the baby by repeatedly shaking her until her brain bled.
X-rays and scans taken before her death showed that she had suffered several fractures all over her body at various times before the fatal incident.
McKay was told he faced an “inevitable” prison sentence after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide at the High Court in Livingston.
He admitted shaking Hayley when the couple were questioned by police at the Sick Kids hospital in Edinburgh, where Hayley had been taken by ambulance.
Jane Farquharson, prosecuting, said the baby’s mother “seemed more concerned for the welfare of, and attentive to, Mr McKay” than tending to the needs of her critically injured daughter.
Farquharson also referred to a police statement in which a family liaison officer described interrupting “intimate relations” as she prepared to tell Davidson that Hayley’s life support machine was about to be switched off.
The report added: “At the time of Hayley’s death, Mrs Davidson held her daughter in her arms. After a few minutes, she indicated she needed to be with Mr McKay.”
Farquharson told how Davidson, who lived a few doors away from McKay, had developed an “obsessive” relationship with the former soldier after splitting with the baby’s dad.
She said the pair denied being drug users but forensic tests showed they had smoked cannabis together, with Hayley in the room, the night before the youngster was fatally injured.
The prosecutor said Davidson left Hayley alone with McKay for an hour to get her two older daughters ready for a planned day out with her grandmother.
At 11.19am, she got a text message from McKay saying: “Come quick,” and she ran along to his house with her two daughters.
Farquharson said: “Mrs Davidson
walked into the living room where she found the accused leaning over her daughter Hayley, administering CPR.
“She describes screaming at her partner, ‘What happened?’ and he replied, ‘Phone an ambulance, she’s not breathing’, which she did from his mobile telephone.”
Paramedics who arrived within seven minutes found Davidson in a distressed state and Hayley “pale, floppy and unresponsive”.
Before the ambulance had arrived, she said, McKay had told his partner that he had left Hayley alone to run a bath.
Farquharson added: “When he returned to check on Hayley, she had wriggled down the beanbag.
“He stroked her face and found her unresponsive.
“Mr McKay then described picking Hayley up and giving her a shake.”
In response to police questioning at hospital, he described shaking the baby three or four times by holding her shoulders and demonstrated what he had done.
Farquharson said: “He described her head as whipping backwards and forwards. His demonstration elicited an immediate response from Catherine Davidson, ‘Are we taking about shaken baby syndrome?’”
Prompted by his disclosures, doctors carried out scans which indicated a bleed around Hayley’s brain consistent with a significant head trauma and the type of injury caused by shaking. Doctors diagnosed a “non-survivable head injury” and, on February 17, after brain stem tests confirmed no activity, care was withdrawn and Hayley died.
Farquharson revealed that Hayley had previously had hospital treatment for a broken arm on New Year’s Day 2016 – three months into McKay’s relationship with her mother.
She said: “Gordon McKay took responsibility for what he described as the ‘accident’ that caused it. His account was deemed consistent with her injury and the clinical team did not view the fracture as suspicious. Social services were notified and did not intervene. Fife protocol has now changed as a result of this case.
“Examination of Hayley upon her admission on February 14, 2016, during the time she spent in hospital prior to her death and scrutiny of the various X-rays and scans taken at this time, revealed a number of healing fractures over various parts of her body and of different ages.
“The process of reviewing X-rays has since changed in Fife and all X-rays of infants under 12 months will now be viewed by a paediatric radiologist.”
John Scott, defending, said McKay – who has two sons who live with his former partner in Inverness – was an ex-soldier whose four years of service included a tour in the Middle East.
He said the defence were seeking reports to show whether he suffered post traumatic stress disorder.
Deferring sentence, Lord Uist told McKay: “You have pled guilty to the grave crime of causing the death of a baby by shaking her.
“As Mr Scott has recognised on your behalf, this is bound to result in a custodial sentence.”
The killer will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh next month and bail was continued to allow him to spend time with his two sons.
McKay declined to comment as he left court with his family and was ushered into a waiting car.
A spokesman for NSPCC Scotland said: “This is a shocking and desperately sad case with Hayley’s life tragically cut short.
“McKay should have kept his partner’s daughter safe from harm.
“Instead, he inflicted fatal injuries on a defenceless baby and it is right that he now faces the consequences of his despicable actions.”