Dad who killed baby 'wanted child to stop crying'

Everleigh was admitted to hospital aged five weeks and died when she was 14 months old

A dad who shook his five-week-old baby daughter to death "just wanted her to stop crying" and should not be found guilty of murder, his defence lawyer told a court.

But prosecutors said Thomas Holford, who "lost his temper" and "became unstable" from smoking multiple cannabis joints, would have been aware that his actions would have seriously injured Everleigh Stroud.

Mr Holford, 24, admits manslaughter but denies murder and assault causing actual bodily harm.

Everleigh died when her life support was turned off a year after the attack in April 2021 which left her with severe injuries to her brain, ribs and legs.

During closing speeches, defence barrister Jo Martin KC told Canterbury Crown Court her client showed no planning, premeditation or motive before killing his daughter.

She said: "This cack-handed, cannabis-fuelled young man would try everything he would normally do to work out why she was crying and then he would move on to stopping that crying.

"If you agree that it is possible that in Tom Holford's head, in that moment when he was shaking Everleigh for a matter of seconds, there was simply and only a wish for her to stop crying, then it follows that a correct verdict would be not guilty to murder."

'Really serious harm'

However, prosecution barrister Eloise Marshall KC told the court that Mr Holford "would have known he would have caused that child really serious harm" by shaking her with "extreme force".

"He is causing her ribs to break. Even that act on its own is enough to show that he intended really serious harm."

The trial continues.