Man killed baby girl when she wouldn’t stop crying

Child given brain damage after being thrown onto couch

A father killed his three month-old daughter because he could not stop her from crying.

Traherne Williams, 22, threw infant Sophia Williams onto a couch in May 2016 in West Lothian causing catastrophic brain damage.

Sophia had been taken to hospital ill days earlier before being allowed home.

Williams, from Linlithgow, told a doctor the baby had fallen at a family centre they had been staying at in Broxburn. Sophia never recovered and died in hospital.

Williams and the child’s 20 year-old mother Shannon Main were both later charged with murder.

The charges led to the parents yesterday appearing at the High Court in Glasgow.

Williams pled guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide. Main walked free after prosecutors accepted her not guilty plea. Williams was remanded in custody pending sentencing next month.

The couple started dating in 2014 before Main fell pregnant with Sophia the following year. They moved into the Strathbrock Family Unit – a homeless unit – in Broxburn just three days before Sophia was born.

On 28 May – two days before the fatal attack – Sophia was taken to hospital as she had been sick for a number of days.

It was suspected she had a virus, but was deemed well enough to go home.

The couple were at the unit on 30 May with Sophia when Main tried to feed her, but the infant was found to be “less responsive than usual”.

Sophia was rushed to hospital. It was initially feared she had meningitis.

Miss Gray: “On asking Williams whether the child had been injured, the doctor was told she had fallen from a couch three or four weeks previously.”

A consultant believed Sophia’s brain injury was “highly suspicious of nonaccidental injury”.

On 4 June, Williams claimed he had to leave hospital due to “anxiety issues”.

Sophia never recovered and she was pronounced dead the following day. She was found to have suffered a “traumatic head injury”.

Williams was later quizzed by police and denied assaulting his daughter deliberately.

The prosecutor said the guilty plea was accepted on the basis Williams “became frustrated at his inability” to stop Sophia crying while alone with her. He was then said to have “forcibly thrown her onto a couch” in the living room.