A TEENAGER who shook a baby so hard it suffered a brain injury and permanent disability has been locked up.
Curtis Taylor, now aged 20, was sentenced alongside 18-year-old Danielle Moss at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.
Taylor, of Jackson Road, Cutteslowe, was convicted by jurors at a trial last month of two counts of causing grievous bodily harm and one charge of causing cruelty to a child under 16.
Moss, of Warburg Crescent, Blackbird Leys, was also convicted of causing cruelty to a child under 16.
Recounting the facts, Judge Patrick Eccles told Taylor: “You lost control of yourself.
“You shook with such force as to cause a subdural haemorrhage, a brain injury and significant visual impairment. These were life-changing injuries sustained by a defenceless child.”
Hannah Kinch, prosecuting, said the child’s development was behind schedule.
She said: “The child’s head circumference is growing, but at a slower rater than normal as a result of the brain injury.”
The court heard Taylor had 21 previous offences against his name, though only one for violence.
Peter Du Feu, defending Taylor, said his client’s upbringing was far from stable.
He said Taylor’s mother was “something of a character who had perhaps other priorities in her life than the care of her children.”
He added: “He grew up really looking after himself to a large extent.
“He would go to school in unwashed, out-sized uniform, shoes that weren’t his and didn’t fit, and he would be laughed at.”
Graham Bennett, defending Moss, said his client, who has a previous conviction for battery, also had an unhappy upbringing.
He said: “The jury’s verdict was the end of a really tragic story for Danielle Moss, dealing with several traumas in a very young life – her background, fostering, a residence at the children’s home.”
Judge Eccles sentenced Taylor to three years in a young offender institute and gave Moss a community order with six months’ supervision.
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