A father who murdered his four-week-old son, discovered with a "snapped neck" and 40 broken bones, has been sentenced to life in prison
Newborn Ollie Davis was found with a disturbing catalogue of injuries only seen on victims of a ’high energy car crash’ at the hands of evil parents Michael Davis and Kayleigh Driver
A dad will spend 22 years behind bars for murdering his infant son who suffered more than 20 broken ribs as he was sentenced to life on Wednesday.
Evil Michael Davis murdered defenceless Ollie Davis, who was just four weeks old and found to have a catalogue of disturbing injuries, including a snapped neck. Ollie’s mum, Kayleigh Driver, was also jailed for seven years after being convicted of causing or allowing Ollie’s death in October 2017.
The pair, both from Leicester, were found guilty last month after a two-month trial in which horrifying evidence was heard about their parenting. As well as murder, Davis, 29, was also convicted of two counts of grievous bodily harm.
Davis, 29, admitted to having not been prepared for fatherhood as a jury heard he would often play on his PlayStation 4 instead of taking care of his newborn son. The Specsavers worker would come home from work and stay up late playing Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto, and Assassin’s Creed, as well as multiplayer mobile phone games and watching wrestling matches on television in the early hours of the morning.
Emergency services were called to the couple’s home on the morning of October 21, 2017, after little Ollie was found unresponsive in his cot. The infant was rushed to hospital where he was tragically pronounced dead a short while later.
But while doctors could not see any initial reason why he had died, a post-mortem would uncover the horrifying truth. Ollie’s cause of death was put down to a broken neck, while examiners found he had also sustained a total of 40 bone fractures – including a fractured skull, collar bone, breaks to joints in both arms and legs, and 23 rib fractures.
Experts told the trial that baby Ollie would have been in considerable pain in the 10 days before his death. Davis and Driver were arrested days later in an investigation culminating in both standing trial for murder, however, Driver, whose pregnancy the court heard had been ’unplanned’, was later cleared of the more serious charge.
Sentencing Davis, Mr Justice Cotter said the murder had involved a "devastating" fatal spinal injury inflicted up to eight days before death. The judge said medical experts had confirmed that Ollie suffered 23 rib fractures and other injuries usually seen after a "high energy car crash."
After saying he was sure that Davis had caused all the injuries during four separate overnight "episodes" of violence, Mr Justice Cotter added: "At least five different mechanisms were required to cause this terrible array of injuries. Michael Davis, I have no doubt that during the night you became frustrated and angry and this led to terrible violence.
"You assaulted him on multiple occasions. The attacks in their various forms were also brutal - in particular the fatal neck injury."
In not seeking medical help, Davis had shown "callous indifference" to Ollie’s suffering, the judge also said.
Turning to Driver, who appeared in court on a mobility scooter due to a chronic neurological condition which resulted in delays to the prosecution in the trial, the judge told her: "You must have heard Ollie’s cries after he was assaulted, as you were together in the bedroom. This must have woken you up."
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