A 26-year-old father in the United Kingdom shook his 15-week-old son so hard that his ribs broke, his shoulder was fractured, his head sustained multiple injuries and his eyes bled.
Matthew Jones, of Beaufort, Blaenau Gwent, in Wales was found guilty of manslaughter on July 12 of his son, Cody Rhys Williams-Jones, reported the BBC.
Wales Online reported that the infant’s injuries were so grave that they were like those caused by “high-speed car crash.”
Paula Williams said her son Cody Rhys Williams-Jones was ‘perfect’ as she issued a statement after his father was convicted of killing him when he was 15-weeks-oldhttps://t.co/BpOeFt1aCs pic.twitter.com/dos0fFORyp
— WalesOnline (@WalesOnline) July 12, 2019
The father, a Rugby player, was held guilty of manslaughter, not murder, after the Newport Crown Court deliberated on the case for about two hours.
“The medical evidence is such that an accidental fall can be excluded. Cody’s injuries were as a result of deliberate violence probably in the form of both shaking and impact,” said prosecutor Paul Lewis QC, according to the BBC.
Jones cried when the verdict was read on Friday and after he was remanded to custody he told his family, “I love you.”
Tragic Death of Baby Cody
On the day of the incident, at about 5 p.m., Cody’s mother, Paula Williams went to her sister’s house nearby and left baby Cody with Jones.
About an hour later, Jones called Williams saying Cody wouldn’t stop crying. The mother asked Jones to use some teething gel. A few minutes later Jones called Williams again.
Cody Rhys Williams-Jones was just 15 weeks old when he diedhttps://t.co/lNmyJBFTUe
— BBC Wales News (@BBCWalesNews) June 26, 2019
“It’s the baby, I don’t know what’s wrong,” he told her and asked her to come home, according to South Wales Argus.
Jones told Williams that Cody had fallen from his arms. “He fell onto the top of his neck, fell back onto the mattress with his legs in the air. His legs then came over with his body weight on top of him,” he said according to Wales Online.
“When I picked him up, he sank in my arms and made a choking noise. He wasn’t breathing properly. I was panicking. Cody had never been like that before,” said Williams, according to South Wales Argus.
Electrical engineer ‘murdered unplanned 15-week-old baby son he called “pleb” by shaking him so hard his eyes bled’ https://t.co/L84DxdJQby
— Popular Crime (@popular_crime) June 25, 2019
Proceedings in the Court
Jones sobbed when a bathtime video of Cody was played before a jury at Newport Crown Court.
The father told the court he loved his son and had taken 400 pictures of the baby in the short span of his life. “I was very proud. I was also proud of Paula (the child’s mother) for bringing such a beautiful son into the world. I was a happy man. I was excited to have a son in my life,” he said according to South Wales Argus.
Cody was an unplanned baby and when Williams announced her pregnancy to Jones, he wanted nothing to do with it, reported the Daily Mail. But later he changed his mind and the couple set up a home together.
Rugby player accused of murdering baby boy Cody Rhys Williams-Jones sobbed at bathtime footage of son https://t.co/XwvTkOr7CB pic.twitter.com/JklrYczUcb
— South Wales Argus (@southwalesargus) July 8, 2019
The defending prosecutor, Richard Smith, told the jury that Jones has never been in trouble with the police before. “Mr Jones was working very hard indeed supporting his newborn child and his partner Paula,” he told the jury, according to the Daily Mail.
According to the BBC, a pathologist told jurors that Cody had uncountable hemorrhages in his eyes.
“The medical evidence is such that an accidental fall can be excluded. Cody’s injuries were as a result of deliberate violence probably in the form of both shaking and impact,” prosecutor Paul Lewis QC told during the trial.
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