A MAN was jailed for life in Belfast yesterday after a jury unanimously convicted him of murdering his 14-week-old son.
The Belfast Crown Court jury of four men and eight women deliberated for just under four hours before convicting 26-year-old Ryan Leslie of murdering and causing grievous bodily harm to his son Cameron Jay Leslie in September 2008.
As the guilty verdicts were announced, Cameron’s mother Sheree Black, grandmother Margaret Black and other family members who had sat through the five-week trial clapped and cheered.
Sentencing Leslie to life imprisonment, Mr Justice Stephens told him: “Your defence involved the proposition that you were a victim wrongly accused and that you were also a grieving father who deserved sympathy.
“The truth was that you brutalised and murdered a 14-week-old baby, your son, and for the offence of murder I sentence you to life imprisonment.”
The judge ordered pre-sentence probation reports on Leslie and told him that on March 18th he would fix the minimum tariff he must spend in prison before being considered for release.
Speaking outside the court, the child’s mother said she had “mixed emotions” at the jury’s verdicts and was “numb but absolutely over the moon”.
“I will never, ever, ever forgive Ryan Leslie for what he has done and I will never ever forget it,” said Ms Black, adding “not a day goes by that I don’t think of Cameron”.
Asked if the verdicts would bring closure for her, she replied: “Hopefully from today that will be something to look forward to but there will always be a hole in my heart where Cameron was”.
The court heard how baby Cameron was rushed first to Antrim Area Hospital and then to the intensive care unit at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children on September 4th, 2008, and that doctors turned off his life support the following day.
His death was due to his brain swelling so much it cut off the oxygen supply to his brain stem. Doctors found a bruise on the back of his head, the court heard.
Deputy state pathologist for Northern Ireland Dr Peter Ingram found numerous other bruises to Cameron’s arms, legs, torso, throat and chin. The doctor also found 14 rib fractures. He described the injuries as “typical of injuries seen in cases of child abuse”.
Dr Ingram said the rib fractures “could not have been sustained accidentally” and were probably caused by the baby’s chest being “forcibly grasped, squeezed or compressed”.
“Indeed, fingertip-type bruising on the back of the chest would support such a mechanism,” said Dr Ingram, who added that while the fractures did not contribute to Cameron’s death they “support the contention that he was subjected to assault on more than one occasion”.
The jury heard Leslie was looking after Cameron on the Tuesday and Wednesday before he died. It was disclosed that the night before he took custody of his child Leslie had tried to hang himself in the bedroom of his flat in Ballyvesey Green, New Mossley, Newtownabbey.
He also disclosed that on the day Cameron came to his house he was due to attend an appointment for anger-management counselling, having physically and verbally abused Ms Black during their two-year relationship.
She gave evidence that if she had known about his suicide attempt, Leslie would never have been given Cameron to look after.
Leslie was due to give the baby back to her on the Wednesday but she got a call from him asking if he could keep his son for another night because he had been “brilliant”. A neighbour of Leslie’s gave evidence that on the Wednesday morning she heard the baby crying for 45 minutes and she heard Leslie shout at him to “shut the f*** up” before he screamed.
In evidence, Leslie admitted to striking Ms Black during their relationship. However, Leslie maintained he did nothing wrong to his son and said: “I loved my son with all my heart. I would never have harmed my son, never.”