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A father who killed his seven-week-old baby boy has been in a cage for 12 years.
Brian Penn, 30, carried out the fatal attack on little Kaleb Penn at his home in Ayr on November 1, 2017.
He had blamed the boys’ mother, Kelly Ann Cope.
Penn violently shook Kaleb and inflicted an unknown blunt trauma on him.
The affected child had suffered a fractured skull, brain hemorrhage, severe brain injury and fractured ribs.
Penn first told doctors the boy suffered a “choking episode,” but died two days later in hospital.
Kelly Anne Cope at the High Court in Glasgow where she was testifying in the trial of her former partner Brian Penn (Image: Spindrift) Read more
Penn was convicted by the Glasgow High Court of culpable manslaughter and a separate charge of assault for the grievous bodily harm and danger to death of Kaleb.
He was originally charged with murder and another alleged attempted murder.
Judge Lord Weir told Penn in today’s and yesterday’s sentencing that Penn inflicted injuries on a “vulnerable baby lost forever for his family forever.”
The judge added: “When Kaleb was born he might have unknowingly expected the loving care and parental attention so essential to these helpless infants.
“The jury was convinced that you inflicted blunt trauma to her head and body of sufficient severity, with fractures showing on an x-ray.
“The physical assaults you committed were the antithesis of the treatment Kaleb was seeking and her life was tragically cut short.”
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Kaleb’s mother, Kelly-Ann Cope, 31, told jurors Penn woke her up the morning of her death by asking her to call 999.
Miss Cope said: He said the weaner didn’t breathe. I was in bed and Kaleb was in his arms at the bedroom door.
Prosecutor Erin Campbell asked how Kaleb was doing and she replied: I put my hand on his heart and it was still beating but I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t breathing.
His eyes rolled to the back of his head.
Miss Cope said she couldn’t watch the Mercy Teams deal with Kaleb and rush him to the hospital.
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Miss Cope was told that she knew Kaleb was choking on prune juice as she said on the 999 call.
Miss Cope was asked how she knew it and she replied: Brian came in and I asked what happened and he said Kaleb choked on prune juice but I didn’t know no more about it.
She later added: He said he patted his back and stiffened, his body became fragile, then realized he was not breathing.
Miss Cope said she was next to Penn when he told medical staff he had left Kaleb on a changing mat weeks before.
The mother was also told that she told police in a statement that Kaleb had a lump on the back of his head.
Miss Cope said she hadn’t known him to hit his head.
Miss Campbell asked: have you forgotten or deliberately not told them?
Miss Cope said: I forgot as my head was bewildered as my thoughts were to see my son.
Miss Cope denied causing Kaleb’s injuries, saying, “I wouldn’t hurt anyone, I couldn’t kill a spider.”
Nurse Carol McNeill earlier told jurors she spoke to Penn after Kaleb arrived at the hospital.
Ms McNeill said: “He said he fed the baby and there was a choking episode.
“He (Kaleb) had vomited, but it wasn’t vomit.”
Consultant neuropathology professor Colin Smith, 53, who examined Kaleb’s brain after his death, testified at the trial.
He said: “[Kaleb’s injuries] are only observed in a context of severe trauma, it is either a fall from a height or a traffic incident. “
Professor Smith also claimed that there was evidence of previous brain hemorrhages dating from seven to 10 days before Kaleb’s death.
He was then asked, “We can hear evidence that three weeks before his death, he may have been dropped about 12 inches to the ground.
“Was a fall like this likely to have caused brain injury?”
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Professor Smith replied: It is possible.
Miss Campbell asked, “Would it be clear that the level of brain damage you identified in this case would have caused Kaleb not to respond?”
Professor Smith replied, “That’s my opinion.”
Brian McConnachie QC, defending, told court that Penn confessed to a social worker that he may have hit Kaleb’s head on a door in “a panic.”
The attorney added: “The injury suffered by Kaleb should have been suffered before that for Mr. Penn to have panicked at this point.”
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