Guilty: Violent Hull dad who shook his baby son to death

There were gasps from the jury at Hull Crown Court as they heard for the first time that Liam Laverick, who they found guilty today for “forcefully shaking” his son Tommy-Lee, had previous convictions for domestic violence.

Mr Justice Baker said Laverick, who continued to verbally abuse his former partner from the dock yesterday, was “prone to lose self control and on occasions act with violence.”

Baby Tommy-Lee had been left “contentedly asleep in his pram” by his mother Kelly Whitworth in a bedroom in a flat on Linnaeus Street, Hull, last September 23, with his elder brother and Laverick in sole charge.

But within half an hour the Judge said “something happened to Tommy-Lee” and despite all medical attempts to save his life he died two days later on September 25.

Yesterday it was disclosed to the court that Laverick had convictions for threatening behaviour and common assault.

The convictions included criminal damage and battery in June 2012, repeated breaches of a non molestation order the same year, including repeated calls of a threatening nature to his previous partner.

When he was arrested he assaulted a police officer.

In December 2013 he was given a community sentence for threatening behaviour, an offence related to domestic violence.

Laverick had told the court that he woke to find the child pale and motionless in his pram and that in his rush to get out of the flat he tripped over a lamp cable in the hallway, and “may have squashed” the child “a bit”.

He told Miss Whitworth that on his way to her, pushing the child in a pram, his trousers fell down and he fell to his knees and the child had been bouncing around as he struggled to push the pram over potholes.

Mr Justice Baker said Laverick had sought to “augment” his account by suggesting he had tripped and fallen both inside and outside the flat. He also said his actions in not going straight to hospital, but to the flat where his girlfriend was at the time, was “discreditable” and was done to give himself time “to concoct an alternative explanation for what you had done to your son.”

His “false and evolving accounts” had hidden the truth from those trying to treat him but also laid the finger of suspicion on his partner Kelly Whitworth, 23, who was also arrested.

The Judge said he could not safely exclude the possibility that Tommy-Lee’s initial collapse was caused by the rupture of a venous abnormality in the brain.

But the Jury, he said, had decided that following the collapse “the accused had subjected Tommy-Lee’s body to such forceful shaking, that not only did it cause the remaining post mortem findings, but most importantly it was a substantial cause of his death.”

He said Laverick’s conduct had been “discreditable.” Instead of going straight to hospital, he had gone to the flat where his girlfriend was to give himself time “to concoct an alternative explanation for what you had done to your son.”

His “false and evolving accounts” had hidden the truth from those trying to treat him but also laid the finger of suspicion on his partner Kelly Whitworth, 23, who was also arrested.

Det Chief Insp Phil Gadd said it was tragic case and there were no winners on either side.

“Tommy-Lee had his life cruelly taken away and today Liam Laverick will start to pay the price for his actions.

“This was a complex case with a significant amount of medical evidence and the case was upsetting and distressing for all those involved.”

He thanked his officers for their “hard work and tenacity.”