Dad jailed after shaken baby died four years later

Leo Williams was left with life-changing injuries after being shaken by his father Mehmet Tufan in 2018

The mother of a boy who died four years after his father shook him as a baby told the killer in court how their son "suffered and struggled" after the attack.

Mehmet Tufan, 30, left five-week-old Leo Williams severely disabled and needing permanent round-the-clock care while looking after him alone at an address in Kirkby in April 2018. He previously admitted unlawfully causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) in 2019 and was jailed.

However, in December 2022 Leo died at Claire's House Hospice in Liverpool from his injuries.

Tufan, of Dovecot in Knowsley, Liverpool, has since admitted an additional charge of manslaughter and was jailed for six-and-a-half years at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday.

Tufan had already served part of a two-year sentence imposed in 2019.

Mehmet Tufan admitted manslaughter four years after attacking his son

The infant remained in intensive care for months, with his family not knowing if he was going to survive.

However, Leo recovered to the point that he could go home, where he was cared for by his mother and her family.

'My everything'

In a victim impact statement read in court on Monday, his mother said "life would never be the same" without her son.

"He was my everything and in a way he still is," she said.

"I suffered greatly following this incident but knew I had to get up each day and continue fighting just like my boy."

She said she would "forever walk around with a piece of my heart missing" and hoped to one day meet Leo again "in a world where Leo no longer has pain, where he is free to run up to me and hug me just like it always should have been".

Addressing Tufan, she said: "I want you to know how Leo struggled. I need you to know how he was left to live after that night.

"I lived every single day caring for Leo making him as comfortable and as loved as he possibly could be.

"It was incredibly painful for me and my family to see Leo in so much pain and suffering and knowing I could not take that pain way from him."

Speaking after the sentencing, Det Sgt David Bruce called Leo a "courageous young boy".

"The injuries sustained by Leo changed his life and also the lives of his family, who continued to love and care for him in the most challenging of circumstances until the very end," he said.