Man slams 3-week-old daughter's head against kitchen counter in a 'flash of frustration' leaving her with misshapen skull
A father who slammed his three-week-old daughter against a kitchen counter during a "flash of frustration" has now been jailed. During an early feed, Robin Bearman, of Ilfracombe, Devon, lost his temper and hit his daughter's head on the counter twice.
He admitted to causing grievous bodily harm at the Exeter Crown Court before he was sentenced to two years and two months in prison, according to a BBC report.
Due to his previous lies to the police about how the infant received the injuries, his wife Lucy had also become a suspect and had her children taken away from her. Doctors found the baby girl had sustained two skull fractures and a serious bleed on the brain.
As a result of the assault, she now has a misshapen skull and struggles with speech and hearing. "I wanted nothing more for my girls than a safe and loving father. The day it happened things had never been better," Lucy told reporters after the hearing.
"We were a happy family. I still don't know why it happened and why he told me those lies. He destroyed everything," she added.
Bearman had invented a series of false stories in a bid to explain the infant's injuries and as a result of his deceit, his wife Lucy also fell under suspicion. She was deemed innocent only after Bearman finally came clean in January 2018.
Last month, the 28-year-old father was cleared of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. However, he admitted to a lesser offense of inflicting grievous bodily harm during the trial.
"You were exceptionally violent and were later to describe shaking her forcefully twice and bringing her head down with force against a kitchen counter on two occasions," Judge Timothy Rose told Bearman.
He is now banned from contacting his ex-wife and children for five years and will serve half of his two-year and two-month sentence in prison and the rest on a license.
"I think the judge was really fair. I always said whatever happens with the sentence will be the right thing," Lucy said after the verdict.
"I had to place my trust and faith in the judge and the process. The family court judge was the one who gave me my children back and said she believed my evidence fully," she added.