Mid Wales father faces jail after baby injury
A Mid Wales man has been warned that he faces a prison sentence after he was convicted of breaking his 13-day-old son's leg.
The 22-year-old man from the Newtown area, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had denied a charge of grievous bodily harm, claiming that as he changed the boy's nappy he heard a clicking sound.
He said he was holding the baby's legs in one hand, was cleaning him with the other, and feared that his leg might have been dislocated when the baby turned and twisted.
But the prosecution told a jury at Mold Crown Court that the fractured femur could simply not have occurred that way.
Young babies did not have the strength to do such a thing, and in any event the fracture to the 13-day old tot's leg was not the kind which would have occurred by twisting, the court heard.
It was a oblique fracture which required direct trauma or force, beyond what would normally be used in changing a nappy, said radiologist Dr Stephan Chapman.
After less than three hours the jury of seven men and five women unanimously convicted him yesterday.
The baby's mother was asleep when the incident happened on the night of August 11, the court heard.
The man was told a custodial sentence was 'very probable'.
