Kurt Delves jailed for killing crying baby daughter

Harli suffered significant brain damage, the court heard

A man has been jailed for shaking his 10 week-old daughter to death because she would not stop crying.

Kurt Delves, 22, of Regan Crescent, Birmingham, repeatedly shook Harli Reid "in frustration" causing devastating brain injuries.

He has been jailed for three years and nine months, having admitted manslaughter last month.

Police said he had claimed he splashed water in her face while bathing her and she flinched and became "floppy".

Delves said he shook her lightly in an attempt to wake her when it happened, on 17 December 2010.

'Violently and unlawfully'

Harli was put on life support at Birmingham Children's Hospital but died the following day, police said.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that Delves, Harli and her mother had been out shopping together on the day she died.

Delves later took Harli to her mother's flat at Grafton Court in Erdington where he "violently and unlawfully" shook the baby, prosecutor Andrew Smith QC said.

There were inconsistencies in his account about when he bathed her, Mr Smith said.

Harli suffered significant brain damage and haemorrhages in her brain and eyes.

Kurt Delves said he splashed water in Harli's face while bathing her

Judge Mrs Justice Thirlwall told Delves: "Babies are vulnerable and defenceless.

'Fundamental duty'

"They can often be noisy, they can often be demanding, they are always vulnerable.

"It is the fundamental duty of a parent to protect them and this you failed.

"I accept you wanted to be a good father but on this date, you didn't, you lost your temper, you shook her repeatedly,

"She has lost her life, a mother has lost her baby and her grandparents, including your own mother, have lost a granddaughter. Her brother will never know her."

Defending, Timothy Wraggatt QC highlighted Delves guilty plea and said he would always have to live with what he had done.

Delves pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the first day of his trial.