Prison for grieving dad who botched robbery

A grieving Fife father whose daughter tragically died after being shaken by his ex-partner’s boyfriend has been jailed for 20 months following a botched robbery attempt.

Kevin Flood, 30, who lost his five-month-old daughter Hayley Davidson back in 2016, was caught red-handed as he tried to break into a convenience store in Kirkcaldy just after midnight on December 5 last year.

Flood unwittingly raised the alarm at the Premier Bains shop in St Clair Street due to the level of noise he was making as he tried to gain entry using a knife and screwdriver.

A neighbour living above the premises, who had been watching a film at the time, initially thought nothing of the banging, thinking it was a late delivery.

But she soon realised it was something more sinister when she eventually went down to take a look at what was causing the racket and saw the middle shutter had been unusually lowered.

Flood, who had been wearing a balaclava during the attempted break-in, then struggled violently with police officers who arrived to take him into custody.

Flood, who appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court via video link from HMP Addiewell, has been in and out of prison since the death of his daughter, who died in hospital after being found at a house in Buckhaven on February 14, 2016.

Gordon McKay, 38, was originally charged with the infant’s murder, but at the High Court in Livingston pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide and was jailed for sevenand-a-half years.

Sheriff Keith O’Mahony sentenced Flood to a cumulative sentence of 20 months.