The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Triple killer who smothered sleeping baby jailed for life
Child killer Jordan Monaghan, 30, must serve 40 years in prison before being considered for parole as he was given three mandatory life sentences for smothering two of his children to death and murdering his new partner with a drug overdose.
He was ordered by the judge to appear for sentencing after missing the past few days of his trial, saying he felt unwell.
Monaghan, a manipulative and controlling gambling addict, was not present as the guilty verdicts were delivered by the jury foreman on Friday morning, following six days of deliberations after a 10-week trial at Preston Crown Court.
He sat in the dock showing no emotion.
He was just yards from the public gallery where Laura Gray, 28, the mother of the children he killed, and the foster parents of Evie Adams, 23, his other victim, watched as sentence was passed.
Monaghan, of Belgrave Close, Blackburn, was convicted of three murders, the first by smothering his daughter Ruby, aged 24 days, as she slept in a Moses basket on January 1 2013.
Eight months later he smothered his 21-monthold son Logan in a public swimming baths cubicle. Six years after that, he murdered partner Ms Adams by drug overdose.
Passing three mandatory life sentences for murder, Mr Justice Goose said: “Your victims were your children, then your partner.
“It is difficult to know why you carried out these offences.
“Having listened to the evidence in this trial, in short you are an exceptionally controlling, selfish and cruel man.
“The trigger to these offences were your volatile relationships.
“The consequences were the snuffing out of the lives of two very young children and a young woman.”
Speaking of Ruby, the judge added: “Her life had barely started and you extinguished it.”