Father Who Shook 15-Week-Old Son to Death Jailed for 9 Years

An undated stock image of an infant. Christiana Bella/Pixabay

A 26-year-old father in the United Kingdom was jailed for nine years on July 17 for shaking his 15-week-old son to death, Evening Express reported.

Judge Justice Picken said that it was “not an accident” and seven expert witnesses have “spoken with one voice” about the baby’s death, reported the BBC.

Matthew Jones, of Beaufort, Blaenau Gwent, in Wales shook his baby Cody Rhys Williams-Jones, so hard that his ribs broke, his shoulder was fractured, his head sustained multiple injuries, and his eyes bled. Jones was found guilty of manslaughter on July 12 of his son, according to an earlier report of the BBC.

Wales Online reported that the infant’s injuries were so grave that they were like those caused by “high-speed car crash.”

The father, a Rugby player, was found guilty of manslaughter, not murder, after the Newport Crown Court deliberated on the case for about two hours.

“The medical evidence is such that an accidental fall can be excluded. Cody’s injuries were as a result of deliberate violence probably in the form of both shaking and impact,” said prosecutor Paul Lewis QC, according to the BBC.

Jones cried when the verdict was read out on Friday, and after being remanded, he told his family, “I love you.”

Tragic Death of Baby Cody

On the day of the incident, at about 5 p.m., Cody’s mother, Paula Williams, went to her sister’s house nearby and left baby Cody with Jones.

About an hour later, Jones called Williams saying Cody wouldn’t stop crying. The mother asked Jones to use some teething gel. A few minutes later, Jones called Williams again.

“It’s the baby, I don’t know what’s wrong,” he told her and asked her to come home, according to South Wales Argus.

Jones told Williams that Cody had fallen from his arms. “He fell onto the top of his neck, fell back onto the mattress with his legs in the air. His legs then came over with his body weight on top of him,” he said according to Wales Online.

“When I picked him up, he sank in my arms and made a choking noise. He wasn’t breathing properly. I was panicking. Cody had never been like that before,” said Jones, according to South Wales Argus.

Proceedings in the Court

Jones sobbed as a bathtime video of Cody was played before a jury at Newport Crown Court.

The father told the court he loved his son and had taken 400 pictures of the baby in the short span of his life. “I was very proud. I was also proud of Paula (the child’s mother) for bringing such a beautiful son into the world. I was a happy man. I was excited to have a son in my life,” he said according to South Wales Argus.

Cody was an unplanned baby, and when Williams announced her pregnancy to Jones, he wanted nothing to do with it, reported the Daily Mail. But later he changed his mind and the couple set up a home together.

The defending prosecutor, Richard Smith, told the jury that Jones has never been in trouble with the police before. “Mr. Jones was working very hard indeed supporting his newborn child and his partner Paula,” he told the jury, according to the Daily Mail.

According to the BBC, a pathologist told jurors that Cody had uncountable hemorrhages in his eyes.

“The medical evidence is such that an accidental fall can be excluded. Cody’s injuries were as a result of deliberate violence probably in the form of both shaking and impact,” prosecutor Paul Lewis QC told during the trial.

Judge Justice Simon Picken said Jones didn’t kill Cody intentionally and that it happened in frustration.

“The tragedy is not just that Cody died but that you as his father find yourself where you are as a consequence of his death. You will bear the burden no doubt for the rest of your life,” Justice Picken said according to Evening Express.