Dad arraigned for violently shaking seven-week old baby to death

A court in the United Kingdom has heard how a father, Oliver Mailey, killed his seven-week-old baby by violently shaking him to death.

Oliver Mailey originally claimed he found seven-week-old Abel-Jax Mailey limp and lifeless in his cot at home in Burnley, Lancashire, before admitting he had shaken the infant and pleading guilty to manslaughter.

A post-mortem found that Abel-Jax suffered a catalogue of traumatic injuries, including catastrophic brain damage and severe bleeding and tearing injuries in his eyes, Preston Crown Court was told.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray KC said the damage to the baby’s brain meant he would have stopped breathing and been deprived of oxygen to his brain.

Addressing the jury, Mr Cray said Mailey was in sole charge of the baby at the home on November 28, 2021, when the incident happened.

Mailey first claimed that the baby went limp while he was feeding his bottle. On a 999 call, he said he had no idea what happened but that ‘he’s gone right limp, he’s gone weird’.