Ten years jail for baby killer

Photo / Supplied.

SYDNEY - A baby killer subjected his victim to repeated beatings, including punching him into unconsciousness, before one day inflicting a brutal death which included stomping on the infant's chest.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was on Friday jailed for 10-and-a-half years for the manslaughter of his girlfriend's 13-month-old son, who died on November 7, 2007 from injuries "consistent with shaking".

Now aged 35, the man was living with the boy and his mother at Blacktown in Sydney's west at the time.

He was on parole having served more than nine years for the shooting manslaughter of a man in 1996.

NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Hidden said the man arrived home from the pub "drunk, angry and aggressive" on November 6, 2007 when the fatal attack occurred.

The baby awoke and the man started to choke him, saying "shut the f*** up, you little c***," also calling him names such as "little black monkey", "black dog" and "black ape".

When the mother tried to intervene, the man produced a knife and threatened to stab her, Justice Hidden said.

"He lifted the child, holding him around the neck with both hands, and shook him violently while he choked him," he said.

"As the mother described it, the baby's whole body was shaking 'in a floppy motion', and he was having difficulty breathing and (was) making a gurgling noise.

"The offender then threw the child back on the mattress and stomped on his chest."

By the time paramedics arrived the baby had stopped breathing and had no pulse.

"The offender's attack upon the baby, although not attended by an intention to kill or to inflict really serious harm, was brutal," Justice Hidden said.

For more than three months the baby's mother hid from police that she witnessed her boyfriend attack the boy.

Nor was it the first time the boy was bashed by the man, who Justice Hidden found had otherwise "been generally affectionate towards the child".

Between June and August 2007 the boy was slapped across the face and legs and repeatedly shaken by the man.

Justice Hidden said the "most significant" in a string of attacks occurred the day before the killing when the boy started crying.

"The offender squeezed him around his neck with both hands and shook him for a significant period of time," Justice Hidden said.

"He also held him around the throat with one hand, choking him, while he punched him forcefully to the face several times."

The baby lost consciousness but was later revived by his attacker.

A victim impact statement tendered to the court by the boy's mother, conveyed her "outrage, pain and grief" over her baby's death, Justice Hidden said.

Due to stand trial for the baby's murder earlier this year, the man pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

"There is no evidence of any expression of remorse by the offender, except so much as might be inherent in the plea of guilty," Justice Hidden said.

His earliest date of release from prison is December 2018.

As sentence was passed on Friday a man in the public gallery of the court whispered obscenities at the offender.

- AAP