High Court told of text saying ‘Come quick!’

On the morning of the incident Mrs Davidson – who had been at home nearby getting her two older daughters ready for a day out – received a text from McKay saying: ‘Come quick!’

She ran to his house and found him trying to resuscitate Hayley.

Paramedics arrived within seven minutes and found the baby “pale, floppy and unresponsive”.

In response to police questioning at the hospital he recounted shaking her three or four times by her shoulders.

Prosecution lawyer Jane Farquharson said: “He described her head as whipping backwards and forwards.”

She told the court: “The bleed to her brain was not a slow one and Hayley’s symptoms would have been obvious.”

Medics diagnosed a nonsurvivable head injury and when brain stem tests confirmed no activity, care was withdrawn.

But Miss Farquharson said the mother “seemed more concerned for the welfare of, and attentive to, Mr McKay” than in her daughter.

Miss Farquharson said Hayley had hospital treatment for a broken arm on New Year’s Day 2016, three months into McKay’s relationship with Mrs Davidson, adding: “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 Council protocol has now changed as a result of this case.”

Defence solicitor John Scott QC told the court his client had served with The Black Watch but had been discharged due to his cannabis use.

He said McKay had mental health problems and had also been homeless after he left the Army.

Lord Uist told McKay: “Following upon the assault upon Hayley you failed to give a true account of what happened to her mother, doctor and the police.

“You persisted in your untrue account to the social worker who prepared a report for this court and even denied any intent to harm Hayley, telling him you had pleaded guilty only on the basis of having caused her death accidentally.”