Man jailed for attacks on two baby boys in Livingston and Shotts

Andrew White was jailed at the High Court in Edinburgh

A man who attacked two baby boys, leaving one with a brain injury and a fractured leg, has been jailed for more than six years.

Andrew White, 32, of Dundee, inflicted a fractured ankle and bruising on his other victim.

The separate assaults took place in 2010 and 2018 in Livingston and Shotts.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard the first victim was three months old and the second four weeks old at the time of the assaults.

White had earlier admitted assaulting the first child to his severe injury in 2010 at a house in Livingston. He admitted seizing the boy, compressing his body, pulling or twisting his leg and inflicting blunt force trauma to his head.

The first victim was referred to doctors with injuries to his foot, knee, body and face. A child protection consultant who examined the baby concluded that significant force would have been required to bruise the boy's abdomen.

'Abusive head trauma'

White also pled guilty to assaulting the second boy to his severe injury and to the danger of his life in 2018 at a house in Shotts.

The court heard White grabbed hold of the four-week-old baby, repeatedly shook him and inflicted blunt force trauma to his body.

The child was taken to hospital where medical staff found he had a significantly swollen right upper thigh and a bruise across his chest. He was transferred to a children's hospital, where he suffered a prolonged seizure and had to be intubated overnight.

Prosecutor Liam Ewing KC said the seizure suffered by the baby would have been life-threatening if not treated.

"The brain injury is consistent with having been caused by abusive head trauma such as shaking," he added.

The boy was also found to have a leg fracture which would have caused severe distress and significant pain.

The court heard that the child appeared to have made a good recovery from his injuries.

'Genuinely remorseful'

White was originally charged with attempting to murder the second boy but the Crown accepted his guilty plea to a reduced charge.

The judge, Lord Doherty, said White had been "relatively immature" at the time of the first assault when he was 19 but was a mature adult when he committed the second offence.

Lord Doherty said it was fortunate that the consequences of the assaults were not more serious. He noted that White had a difficult childhood, suffered from mental health issues and had a leg amputated after a road accident.

He also said he accepted that White was genuinely remorseful for what he had done to the children.

Jailing him for a total of six years and four months, Lord Doherty ordered that White should be under supervision for a further two-year period following his jail term, when he will be under licence and could be returned to prison if he breaches its terms.

Defence solicitor advocate Calum Weir said White accepted that he needed to be punished. He added: "He deeply regrets his conduct."