I hope baby attacker is jailed for a long time
Sicko beat tot who lost mum to cancer
A GRAN hopes a vile baby beater rots behind bars after he left her tragic daughter’s infant battered and bruised.
Sick Mark Tannahill, 38, carried out a three-month reign of terror on the baby girl which left her with broken ribs and a fractured skull. The tot, who cannot be named to protect her identity, was attacked after her mother died from cancer in 2021, weeks after giving birth. The baby’s gran, who rescued the child, revealed the baby had bruising on her face at the funeral. The mum, in her 30s, was 30 weeks pregnant when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and a 7in tumour was found. She was forced to deliver prematurely at 34 weeks before her death weeks later. At times Tannahill was left alone with the newborn but the gran of two realised something wasn’t right. The woman, who cannot be named, said: “I hope he’s locked away for a very long time. “He’s an absolute monster. He has put us through hell for two-and-a-half years. “To know my granddaughter spent her first weeks in life being tormented by that vile man makes me sick.
“When the verdict was read out I just burst out crying.”
She noticed signs of abuse while her dying daughter was battling cancer in hospital.
She recalled Tannahill, from Crosshouse, Ayrshire, shouting “shut the f*** up” at the baby girl, who was crying. It was also heard by a gardener.
She said: “I was horrified. My daughter was dying. She was coming home on the Monday, for end-of-life care.
“I said ‘Mark, I know you’re stressed but you can’t do that.’ We gave him plenty of support.”
The gran took the tot into hospital because of bruising on her face. Medics alerted social workers and the baby was put into her grandmother’s care.
She said: “She had bruises on her face the day of my daughter’s funeral, when she was 10 weeks old.
“Mark said it was because she was having ‘tummy time’ and that the dummy had pressed into her face.
“I work in healthcare and I said to some of my colleagues, they advised me right away to get it checked out.”
She added: “If it wasn’t for myself intervening, the wee one wouldn’t be here.”
The toddler is now happy and doing well.
The gran said: “This is justice for my daughter who fought so hard to be here for her baby.”
On the day after Mother’s Day, a jury found Tannahill guilty of assaulting the baby to her severe injury and danger to life and of behaving in an abusive or threatening manner.
He will be sentenced at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court next month.