Christopher Yates, 30, of Swalwell, Gateshead, was sentenced to four years in prison at Newcastle Crown Court after admitting causing a child to suffer serious physical harm. The assault left his seven-month-old son with catastrophic brain damage, blindness, and a reduced life expectancy.
The assault
Yates had been granted custody of the baby just three weeks and four days before the attack, despite known alcohol problems. On the night of the assault, he drank 11 cans of Foster's lager and snorted a line of cocaine. When the baby cried during a 2am feed, Yates shook him violently five times while shouting “shut the f*** up”. He then placed the baby in a cot and retreated to the bathroom for an hour with a towel wrapped around his head to muffle the crying.
The force of the shaking was described as equivalent to that expected in a high-speed road traffic accident. Yates delayed seeking medical help for hours, initially lying about what happened before later admitting he shook the baby.
Court proceedings
The court heard that Yates had a history of alcohol and substance abuse since his teens and an “explosive temper” when drunk. Relatives had urged him to seek help from social services after noticing he was struggling to care for the baby, but Yates did not proactively seek assistance. He later told a relative, “I can do whatever I want,” when questioned about his drinking.
Judge Julie Clemitson said: “Only three weeks and four days after receiving (him) into your sole care, you admit, in the early hours of the morning, you lost control of your temper. You were under the influence of alcohol and cocaine, you'd had 11 cans of Foster's and a line of cocaine.” She added that “the effect of this offending has been catastrophic”.
Victim impact
In a victim impact statement, the baby’s foster mother said: “He was the one person who should have loved and cared for him. He has broken his brain, he has broken his life, he has broken everyone's hearts. All he had to do was phone us and we would have been straight there.” The baby is now back with his foster family, blind and requiring lifelong medication.
Yates’ defence lawyer, Rachel Hedworth, said: “He is unable to put into words how utterly sickened he is by his own behaviour. He was simply not equipped with the life skills to cope with the responsibilities of looking after a tiny baby.” She added that Yates had experienced violence as a child and suffers from mental health problems.
