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Baby killer jailed for six years | Baby killer jailed for six years |
(about 4 hours later) | |
A man who was found guilty of killing his baby daughter by shaking her to death has been sentenced to six years in prison. | A man who was found guilty of killing his baby daughter by shaking her to death has been sentenced to six years in prison. |
Faisal Younas was convicted of the culpable homicide of nine-month-old Alishba at the family home in Glasgow's Pollokshields area in September 2005. | Faisal Younas was convicted of the culpable homicide of nine-month-old Alishba at the family home in Glasgow's Pollokshields area in September 2005. |
The judge at the High Court in Glasgow said the 35-year-old had betrayed the trust incumbent on any parent. | |
He also recommended that Younas be deported on completion of his sentence. | He also recommended that Younas be deported on completion of his sentence. |
Younas, who has always protested his innocence, was a property developer in Pakistan before he came to Scotland in 2001, seeking political asylum. | |
He cried as judge Lord Hardie passed down sentence. | |
The judge told him: "The manner of the assault was never established precisely in evidence and you alone know what you did. | |
I will never believe my husband did this to our baby Vanu YounasWife of Faisal Younas | |
"Although there was a difference of opinion by expert witnesses as to whether shaking Alishba caused her internal head injuries, and if so, the extent of that shaking, there did not seem to be any dispute that the injuries were caused by trauma." | |
During the trial, the jury heard how Alishba - who was born on 25 December, 2005 - died two days after her father burst into his local medical centre in Pollokshields and demanded that the GP treat her as she was having breathing difficulties. | |
Alishba died from a brain injury after being admitted to Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children. | |
Lord Hardie told Younas that children of all ages were entitled to trust that their parents would protect them. | |
"That trust is absolute, particularly in the case of babies and infants who are totally dependent on their parents and others," he said. | |
"When your wife was at work you had total responsibility for the care and well-being of your baby daughter. | |
"You betrayed that trust by assaulting her causing internal head injuries and brain damage." | |
No trace | |
A post-mortem examination revealed that the surface of Alishba's brain had been torn and there was bleeding in the brain and behind her eyes. | |
But there was no trace of bruises on her body or face which would have been expected if someone had shaken her violently. | |
Much of the trial was taken up by complicated evidence from defence and prosecution medics who clashed over the cause of Alishba's injuries. | |
The prosecution relied heavily on a videoed interview conducted by Lord Hardie months earlier with a four-year-old boy which it was claimed was evidence of an assault on Alishba. | |
Paul McBride QC, who was defending Younas, said experts were only giving a "snapshot" of what they knew at the time, but medical knowledge moved on quickly. | |
"In five years time there could be a breakthrough in child neuro surgical pathology throwing new light on how a child could get such injuries," he said. | |
Younas' wife of eight years, Banu, was not in court to hear the sentence, but when the news was broken to her, she said: "I will never believe my husband did this to our baby." |
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