Father who shook his baby daughter to death after smoking cannabis and losing his temper jailed for minimum of 17 years

According to   Daily mail A father who killed his four-month-old daughter by ‘vigorously shaking’ her after smoking cannabis and losing his temper has been jailed for a minimum of 17 years.

Ross Conlin, 29, shook baby Kiera so violently ‘in anger’ while left alone with her that she had a heart attack and stopped breathing.

Examinations revealed the youngster also suffered three skull fractures, rib fractures and bleeding to the brain in the lead up to her death in Farnborough, Hampshire, on May 6 last year.

He was handed a life sentence by the judge and told he will serve a minimum of 17-and-a-half years in prison before being led away by two security guards.

His partner, and Kiera’s mother, Kelly-Marie Rayner, 26, was earlier acquitted in court of a charge of causing or allowing the death of a child.

Conlin had been left in charge of Kiera, while Rayner went to have her nails painted, when the injuries were suffered at some point after 10am that day.

Mr Lickley said: ‘Kiera was shaken violently, she may also have suffered further head impact.

‘Her injuries were so severe, having become unconscious and stopped breathing - she was in her father’s hands at the time - she suffered a heart attack.

‘She never recovered and was allowed to die the following day, the doctors unable to save her.

‘She hadn’t suffered those injuries as a result of choking or vomiting on her bottle as her father said but as a result of violent shaking by the adult holding her, her own father.’

He added that Conlin had inflicted the ‘terrible’ injuries ‘probably in anger’.

Mr Lickley said post mortem examinations showed that Kiera had suffered a rib fracture between four and eight weeks prior to her death with the same rib and another being fractured again about 14 days prior to her death along with three skull fractures.

She suffered further rib fractures between three and five days prior to her death and showed signs of previously having suffered bleeding to the eyes.

Mr Lickley said that there was ‘’stress and strain’ in the household and Rayner feared that Conlin might leave her.

Other causes for the stress were money worries, with Conlin taking out short-term loans to shore up their bank account.

Conlin, who worked as a debt collector, had also been experiencing trouble at work and had been facing disciplinary procedures after his performance had ‘dipped’.

And his drug use also added to the strain on the household, Mr Lickley said.

He added: ‘He is a drug user. He smoked cannabis on May 5, the day before events on May 6 and historically, at least, had taken cocaine.’