Sheffield man who walked free after breaking baby's arm will now go to jail after Court of Appeal ruling

Andrew Newton, of Parson Cross, Sheffield, could not stop the baby boy from crying before he fractured his left upper arm and right thigh. He also broke three ribs in a separate incident.

He was spared from immediately going to jail at a hearing at Sheffield Crown Court in August, where he pleaded guilty to a charge of cruelty to a person under 16 and was handed a two-year suspended sentence. However, the 27-year-old will now go to prison after the case was referred to the Court of Appeal after the Solicitor General called the verdict "unduly lenient". On Thursday (October 27), Newton's sentence was increased to three years in prison, which cannot be suspended.

The London court heard that in October 2019, the young baby, who cannot be identified, was found crying with a floppy arm by a relative. He was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a break in his left arm, fractures to three of his ribs as well as a fracture to his right leg that was between two and four weeks old. Doctors also found bruising on the infant's cheeks and legs.

Newton, formerly a supermarket cleaner, was arrested and denied intentionally harming the baby, saying had dropped the infant or accidentally put him down with his arm behind his back, before later pleading guilty.

Ben Holt, for the Solicitor General, argued the sentencing judge had wrongly decided the level of harm caused to the infant. He said: "In the context of a ten-week-old child, or any child, these injuries should have been assessed as being serious physical harm. Because of the error in terms of categorisation... the sentence in this case is one that can truly be described as a gross error and unduly lenient."

Gurdial Singh, for Newton, said the original judge's sentencing was meticulous and careful and that the Court of Appeal should not interfere.

During the sentencing in August, Mr Singh argued that the injuries were “not violence meted out to a helpless child for some nefarious reason. It was an inadequate parent trying to cope with the child.” He added that while the injuries caused to the infant were serious, they did not automatically require the most serious categorisation. The court was later told that Newton had shown remorse and that the sentencing judge found he had a "realistic prospect of rehabilitation".

The Court of Appeal heard Newton was assessed as having significant difficulties with communication and comprehension.

Lady Justice Carr, sitting with Mrs Justice McGowan and Mrs Justice Tipples, increased the sentence to a total of three years, taking mitigation and Newton's guilty plea into account. She said: "It is clear to us that the judge thought long and hard about the sentencing exercise but we do consider he was wrong to place harm in category two of the guideline."

The judge continued: "Whilst the baby made a full and apparently uncomplicated recovery, his physical injuries were, on any view, serious.”

“The sentence imposed by the judge of two years was not only lenient but unduly so," Lady Justice Carr concluded.