Father shook his baby to death ‘with force of car crash’ then tried to blame child’s mother

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A father who shook his eight-week-old baby boy to death before trying to blame the child’s mother has been jailed for life.

Oliver Mailey, 26, was given a minimum 16-year term in prison on Wednesday for the murder of seven-week-old Abel-Jax Mailey, following his “violent and horrific” attack.

Doctors who gave evidence during his ten-day trial at Preston Crown Court said he caused the baby’s death by shaking him with the “force of a car crash”.

The jury was told Mailey had left Abel-Jax with broken ribs and a bleed on the brain ten days before the fatal assault by carrying out a similar attack.

The baby’s mother Mollie Gorton noticed there was something wrong with him after Mailey video-called her on November 28, 2021, and saw her child’s body was limp and lifeless.

But after being rushed to hospital from the home they shared in Burnley, Lancashire, doctors were forced to turn off his life support two days later. A later post-mortem revealed he had died from a head injury.

The court heard in the three days leading up to November 28, Mailey described Abel-Jax’s cry changing from that of a normal baby cry to one of a “wincing or hurting” cry.

And when the tot was held by Mailey’s half-sister on November 26, she told her sibling he didn’t feel right and was “too stiff”.

On the morning of November 28, Ms Gorton went to work at Burnley FC’s stadium Turf Moor.

But within 45 minutes of her leaving, Mailey was calling her to tell her there was something wrong with their son.

In a video call between the pair, Ms Gorton could see Abel-Jax on Mailey’s knee, his body was limp and lifeless.

Mailey told Ms Gorton he had been changing him and he felt limp, so he went to feed him but then his arms went floppy, and he felt “weird”.

Abel-Jax was rushed to a hospital in Blackburn but later transferred to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Mailey was arrested on the evening of November 28, as was Ms Gorton a couple of days later.

She was accused of murdering Abel-Jax but was cleared before Mailey later admitted to shaking his son in a “moment of madness” as he wouldn’t stop crying.

Mailey initially pointed suspicion towards Ms Gorton, saying only he or she could have inflicted the injuries, as they were the only ones who had been around Abel-Jax. He continued to deny murder throughout court proceedings and denied previously shaking his son right up until the first day of his trial.

Sentencing Mailey, Mr Justice Cotter said: “The injuries caused by shaking, the oxygen starvation, bleeding and swelling, led to Abel-Jax’s collapse and subsequent death.

“The triad of brain swelling, brain bleeding and eye injuries were consistent with non-accidental head-injury.

“it obviously did not take too much for you to resort to shaking Abel-Jax and you ignored the clear warning that you had been given just four days earlier. The shaking on both occasions was clearly very violent.”

Speaking after the sentencing, detective chief inspective Jane Webb, of Lancashire Police’s Force, said: “As Abel-Jax’s father, Oliver Mailey was in a position of trust, there to provide love, support and care.

“On that day, Mailey abused that trust in the most violent and horrific way. He carried out a shocking attack, which tragically led to Abel-Jax’s death.

“When interviewed by police, he repeatedly denied knowing anything about how Abel-Jax had come by his injuries.

“Mailey is a coward and his actions alone led to the death of his son.”