Morecambe man guilty of murdering baby son

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-38241067

Version 0 of 1.

A father has been found guilty of murdering his seven-month-old son by smothering him.

Kane Kennedy, 20, grabbed Oskar Jobey-Kennedy's genitals and then pushed his fingers into his mouth to silence him at a flat in Morecambe in October 2015.

He then put his hand over the baby's mouth to deliberately smother him.

At Preston Crown Court, Oskar's mother Tia Jobey, 18, was jailed for 30 months after admitting causing or allowing the death of a child.

Kennedy, formerly of Harewood Avenue, Heysham, will be sentenced on 15 December.

The court heard that Jobey was scared Kennedy would harm their son and they argued about his cannabis use.

'Bitter lesson'

In Facebook messages, she wrote: "I'm trying to make sure Oskar is happy and safe and while you are addicted to weed and violent and abusive he's not safe at all.

"You throw him around like a toy, suffocate him, stick your finger down his... throat."

Kennedy claimed he fell asleep with the baby under his arm and woke at 08:45 BST on 1 October to find him not breathing.

The infant was pronounced dead an hour later at Lancaster Royal Infirmary.

A post-mortem examination revealed a catalogue of non-accidental injuries to his face, throat and genitals.

Sentencing Jobey, Mr Justice Davis admonished her for not protecting her son.

The judge told her: "You knew that was something that could happen and had happened, but yet you did nothing.

"I am told, and I accept, that you now bitterly regret not leaving him and not removing Oskar from his clutches.

"You have learnt a bitter lesson."

Det Ch Insp Jon Holmes of Lancashire Police said: "It is almost impossible to understand the mindset of someone who could do this to any child, let alone their own son."