Wallasey ex-squaddie Dean Hodkinson jailed for disabling three-week-old son

Jan 27 2010 Birkenhead News

A FORMER soldier from Wallasey who shook his three-week-old baby so violently he is now permanently disabled has been jailed.

Dean Hodkinson, 21, was sentenced to two years and eight months for the attack, which left his newborn son, Anthony Payne, mentally and physically disabled.

Speaking after the sentence Anthony’s mother Cara Payne said: “He [Dean] has never shown any remorse for what he has done, never.”

Liverpool Crown Court heard the previously healthy three-week-old baby suffered bleeding and damage to the brain, fractures to at least 17 ribs and breaks to his collar bones and both shoulders in Hodkinson’s attack.

The court heard how Hodkinson was staying with Anthony’s mum and grandmother at their Poulton Road home in Wallasey following Anthony’s birth.

On the morning of August 9, 2008, Hodkinson went downstairs alone with the baby.

About 20 minutes later he came back upstairs asking Cara: “What does it mean when the baby goes all floppy?”

An ambulance was called and Anthony was rushed to Arrowe Park Hospital, where staff called police and social services.

Hodkinson denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and causing grievous bodily harm and last April a Liverpool Crown Court jury were unable to reach a decision at his trial. But earlier this month, as his retrial was due to begin, Hodkinson pleaded guilty to the lesser charge.