Andrew Newton: Face of Yorkshire man who almost walked free despite breaking baby’s arm

Andrew Newton, of Parson Cross, Sheffield, fractured the baby boy’s left upper arm and right thigh when he could not stop the child crying in an incident in 2019. He also broke three ribs in a separate incident.

Incredibly, Newton was spared from immediately going to jail after he pleaded guilty to cruelty, and was handed a suspended sentence. But last week, the 27-year-old was brought back by the Court of Appeal and sent to prison, after the Solicitor General labeled the verdict “unduly lenient”.

Now, for the first time, South Yorkshire Police have released Newton’s mugshot at the beginning of Newton’s three-year prison sentence.

The Court of Appeal heard how in October 2019 the young baby, who cannot be identified, was found crying and with a floppy arm by a relative. He was diagnosed at hospital with a break in his left arm, fractures to three of his ribs as well as a fracture to his right leg that was between two and four weeks old. Doctors also found bruising on the infant’s cheeks and legs.

Newton was arrested and denied intentionally harming the baby, saying had dropped the infant or accidentally put him down with his arm behind his back, before later pleading guilty.

Ben Holt, for the Solicitor General, said: “In the context of a 10-week-old child, or any child, these injuries should have been assessed as being serious physical harm. Because of the error in terms of categorisation...the sentence in this case is one that can truly be described as a gross error and unduly lenient.”

Gurdial Singh, for Newton, said the original judge’s sentencing was meticulous and careful and that the Court of Appeal should not interfere.

During the sentencing in August, Mr Singh argued that the injuries were “not violence meted out to a helpless child for some nefarious reason. It was an inadequate parent trying to cope with the child.”

Lady Justice Carr, sitting with Mrs Justice McGowan and Mrs Justice Tipples, increased the sentence to a total of three years, which cannot be suspended. The court ruled it was “wrong” to place harm in a lower category.