Father is found guilty of murdering his baby son after four-month trial

A FATHER has been convicted of the murder of his baby son at their home in Barnsley after jurors returned a guilty verdict in a long-running trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

Leon Mathias, 34, of Stonebridge Lane, Great Houghton, Barnsley, denied murdering his two-monthold son Hunter but a jury found him guilty yesterday.

Hunter was taken to hospital with injuries on November 30 2018 and died on December 3 2018.

The judge, Mrs Justice Lambert, told Mathias a custodial sentence was inevitable and remanded him in custody until Thursday, when he will be sentenced.

The judge said: “Mr Mathias, you have been found guilty of murder. A custodial sentence is inevitable, as I’m sure you know. For that reason, you are remanded into custody. You will be produced for the sentencing.”

Jurors returned a not guilty verdict on a second charge faced by Mathias, of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The trial began almost four months ago and the jury spent 27 hours and 29 minutes deliberating before reaching their verdicts.

Robert Smith KC, prosecuting, told the jury Hunter died in Sheffield Children’s Hospital from a severe brain injury.

A post-mortem examination revealed bruising to his scalp was consistent with an impact injury to the head, Mr Smith said.

Scans revealed three lower limb fractures, including one which was believed to have happened around the time of the head injury, with the other two occurring days earlier.

Mr Smith said it was the prosecution case that Mathias murdered his baby son, possibly after he lost his temper while the child was crying.

He also claimed experts believed these injuries were closely associated with the shaking of a child, the twisting of limbs or swinging a child by the legs.

During the trial, Mathias denied murdering his baby son and told the jury he had tried to save Hunter after the youngster suddenly stopped breathing during a bath.

He told the jury Hunter had previously been struggling with breathing while feeding and that he had got in the bath with his son on the evening of November 30 2018 while his partner Becky Higginbottom was downstairs but they got out of the bath after the youngster defecated.

As she discharged the jury, Mrs Justice Lambert said thanking them for their “extraordinary work” over the past four months was “not quite adequate”.

"The criminal justice system relies upon men and women like you making the sacrifices you have made for the past four months,” she said.