Dad James Horton avoids jail for battering baby
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by Keith Hunt
A young dad who lost his
temper and broke his baby daughter’s arm was told he had has
escaped a jail sentence by the skin of his teeth.
James Horton was sentenced on
the basis he was a loving father who had a momentary lapse of
control.
He was not being punished, said
a judge, for several older fractures baby Scarlet was found to have
to her ribs.
The 27-year-old former Maidstone
schoolboy, of St Theresa’s Close, Ashford, was given a suspended
sentence of just under a year with 250 hours unpaid work and two
years supervision.
Horton denied cruelty to a
person under 16, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and a
lesser offence of inflicting grievous bodily harm.
He was convicted in November of
inflicting grievous bodily harm by an 11-1 majority and cleared of
the other charges.
Maidstone Crown Court heard the
child was just three months old when she was taken to the William
Harvey Hospital in Ashford on March 30 2010.
He had been looking after
Scarlet while her mother was visiting friends.
He later claimed the injury to
the child’s upper left arm may have been caused by her getting
tangled up in the bars of her cot.
Horton, who left Swadelands
School in Lenham with six GCSEs before working on the railway,
denied he had harmed his daughter in any way.
Asked if it was true he had
assaulted and mistreated Scarlet, he replied: "No, of course it
isn’t. I loved her."
Judge David Griffith-Jones QC
said he made it clear that while it was a disturbing feature she
was found to have historic injuries, he was being sentenced on the
basis it was a single offence and he did not intend to cause
serious injury.
"I sentence you on the basis the
injury was the result of a sudden and momentary loss of control on
your part," he said.
"Plainly, she was vulnerable. At
the material time she was in your care and wholly dependent upon
you."
The child, now in foster care
with Horton having supervised contact, had recovered, he added,
with no ongoing complications.
Tuesday, January 24 2012
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