A father who killed his 14-day-old baby has been jailed for at least 20 years after the “appalling” attack. Daniel Gunter, 27, fatally injured his newborn child by inflicting “severe force” to his head, face, neck, torso legs and feet at Yeovil District Hospital in Somerset on March 5, 2024. The baby, who was named Brendon Staddon, taking the surname of his mother Sophie, 21, was found by hospital staff in his cot after the attack.
The two-week-old child was pronounced dead shortly before 5am while his parents were having a cigarette outside the hospital, according to reports. They were arrested soon afterwards. Gunter was convicted of murder following a three-week trial at Bristol Crown Court this week while Staddon was acquitted on charges of causing or allowing Brendon’s death. During the trial, the 27-year-old was told he had murdered his child by “shattering his skull and breaking his neck” just metres away from nurses in the special care baby unit.
Delivering the sentence, Honourable Mr Justice Swift said: “Brendon was your son … He was born a little prematurely, at 33 weeks, but was in all other respects a healthy child,” as per the Daily Mail.
“[His] death was the result of catastrophic injuries, all of which you inflicted in the early hours of March 3,” he added. “The injuries were appalling … Brendon sustained multiple injuries to the front of his head and face, chin, nose, eyes and cheek, to his skull, to his neck, his torso, his left hand, legs and feet – fractures caused by twisting and pulling – and significant internal bleeding.
“Put in simple terms, very severe force was brought to bear on Brendon. His skull was shattered and his neck was broken.”
The judge said the “highly vulnerable” murder victim could have been killed by his father holding him by the legs and swinging him forcefully, “causing his head and neck to move excessively and his head to impact multiple times on a blunt object or surface”.
The “excessively violent” killing was ruled as pre-meditated, with the impact likened by medical experts to “a fall from a multi-storey building”.
Mr Swift also referred to victim statements supplied by Brendon’s grandparents, who he said “continue to be deeply affected by his death” and “[cannot] understand the reason for these shocking events”.
“No sentence that I could pass today could possibly ease their grief at Brendon’s death,” he told the court. “The sentence I pass is in no way intended as a measure of the value of his life, and I hope his family and others affected by his death will not regard it as such.”
Prosecutor Charles Row KC said Gunter had questioned whether he was the infant’s biological father and emphasised the “sheer brutality” of the attack.
Andrew Langdon, representing Gunter, said his client had a low IQ and was “immature for his age”.
Speaking outside the court, Detective Chief Inspector Nadine Partride of Avon and Somerset Police described it as “one of the most harrowing investigations our team has ever faced”. “Just the thought that someone could be capable of doing what Daniel did to a tiny baby is incomprehensible,” she added.
The Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said an investigation into the circumstances of the incident would be published as part of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review later this year.