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Oliver Mailey: Cannabis-smoking man kills his 7-week-old son by ‘shaking him with force of a car crash’

Oliver Mailey initially claimed he found Abel-Jax limp and lifeless in his cot, before admitting he had shaken him and pled guilty to manslaughter

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BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE: A cannabis-smoking man reportedly murdered his newborn baby boy by shaking him ferociously with force comparable to a car collision or falling from a tall building.

Abel-Jax Mailey was just seven weeks old when his father, Oliver, reportedly inflicted fatal injuries on him at their home in Burnley, Lancashire on November 28, 2021. He initially claimed he found the infant limp and lifeless in his cot, before admitting he had shaken the baby and pled guilty to manslaughter. He was arrested in June 2022 and was also accused of intending to cause the baby serious harm, according to Daily Mail.

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Addressing the court on Thursday, January 12, prosecutor Timothy Cray KC noted that Oliver was in sole charge of the baby Mailey at their Burnley home after the baby's mother, Mollie Gorton, left for work at 11.15 am. In less than an hour after she left, the seven-month-old suffered serious injuries and needed to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. At that time, Oliver claimed Mailey went limp while he was feeding his bottle. During a call to emergency personnel, he explained that he had no idea what happened but that "he's gone right limp, he's gone weird."

Reflecting to Oliver's claim, the prosecutor said, "The defendant's initial story was that he had found Abel in his crib and that Abel appeared limp and lifeless. The key thing he was saying then was that he didn't know what had happened to Abel. I'm afraid what you will hear is that those statements were lies. After speaking to others, he called an ambulance at 12:06 pm. Abel died on the evening of Tuesday, November 30 after life support was withdrawn."

A medical examination later revealed that Mailey had suffered several traumatic injuries, including catastrophic brain damage, severe bleeding and tears in his eyes. Cray said that the baby's brain injury would have prevented him from breathing and starved his brain of oxygen, which led to his death. He added that doctors agreed the injuries were consistent with "forceful and deliberate shaking."

The prosecutor further clarified that the baby’s injuries were not caused accidentally and said they could only occur in other circumstances, such as a "car accident or fall from a multi-story building." "In the run-up to this trial, the defendant has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. This defendant does not dispute that he shook Abel on the Sunday morning, that the shaking caused Abel's death, and that his acts were unlawful," he added.

Cray also revealed that Oliver repeatedly questioned Gorton if he was the real father of the baby as "he knew his sperm count was pretty low." "Another issue was that there was little money in the house but both parents were regular users of cannabis. Mollie says she was trying to cut down her use but that the defendant was unable to do the same. The phone records show that he was arranging to buy cannabis on the Sunday morning that Abel was killed," Cray said.