Five years for man who killed his baby

The Limassol criminal court on Wednesday sentenced a 37-year-old man to five years in jail for manslaughter after he was found guilty of shaking his two-month-old baby to death on March 5, 2022.

The baby was pronounced dead at Makarios hospital in Nicosia after an autopsy carried out on his body confirmed he suffered a craniocerebral injury and showed signs of abuse.

The infant also presented a subdural hematoma of the brain, a subdural hematoma of the spinal cord and a fracture of the right clavicle.

Based on the autopsy findings, carried by state pathologists Angeliki Papetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou the infant’s severe head injuries could not have been sustained from an accident.

The pathologists also established malicious traumatic brain injury after violent shaking and possibly hitting a blunt surface. No signs of resuscitation appear to have been found.

Police arrested the 37-year-old father of the baby and his 22-year-old wife, and the Limassol court remanded them for eight days shortly after.

During the interrogation, the father confessed that he shook the baby to stop her from crying. The mother was released, whereas the father was eventually handed a five-year jail sentence.