Fundraising father admits to shaking baby son to death
Panel of experts found child was subject of non-accidental trauma
A FATHER who fundraised for a cot death charity in tribute to his late baby son has admitted killing the child by shaking him in a fit of anger.
David Sinclair, 34, persuaded friends to contribute to a charity fund in memory of his four-monthold son Joshua who he said died after a breathing problem.
But a court had heard that Sinclair had shaken the child to death.
Sinclair was originally charged with murder, but has now admitted the reduced charge of culpable homicide just days before he was due to go on trial.
The former supermarket worker had organised a fundraiser in Joshua’s memory through the Scottish Cot Death Trust.
Sinclair, from East Kilbride, married wife Kirsty on July 9, 2013, Unsuspecting wedding guests who attended their “reception with a difference” were persuaded to hand over £5,300 to the cot death fund.
The killing took place on Decem- ber 6, 2012, when Sinclair was left alone with Joshua at the family home.
He made a frantic phone call to Kirsty to tell her the child was not breathing before dialling 999.
Emergency services raced to the scene where they found Joshua lying on the floor, pale and not breathing.
During the resuscitation efforts Dr Andrew Palombo asked what had happened. Sinclair stated that Joshua had been sitting next to him on the sofa.
He said the child turned blue and stopped breathing and he dialled 999.
Sinclair told police that he changed Joshua’s nappy and then tried to feed him, but he did not seem hungry. He then laid Joshua on his left side on the couch and sat next to him with his laptop.
About five minutes later he said he heard Joshua making “funny noises”, which was normal for him.
He then heard a wheezing noise and went back to his computer and 20 or 30 seconds later heard a gasp and Joshua did not have any expression on his face.
Sinclair told police he heard another gasp and realised something might be wrong and started to panic.
Joshua was taken to Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride where medical staff battled for almost an hour to save his life before he was pronounced dead.
The cause of death was initially uncertain, but the case was later reviewed by experts.
One of them, Dr Peter Richards, consultant paediatric neuro-surgeon at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, said: “This would be compatible with him having suffered a shaking injury involving handling at greater force than encountered in everyday life.
“It would be compatible with a shaking event where a carer who has not planned to injure a child has momentary loss of control – with tragic consequences.”
They discovered evidence of trauma in the eyes and brain which could only have been caused non-accidentally, close to the time of death.
Judge Lord Bannatyne deferred sentence on Sinclair, who has previous convictions for assault, until next month for background reports.