A care assistant has been jailed and banned from having contact with a nine-week old baby after he left the tot with horrific injuries after violently shaking him.
26-year-old Jose Herreros grabbed hold of the baby boy and shook him with force, causing severe injuries including 11 fractured bones in his ribs and legs. Herreros admitted to the horrific attack after a health worker spotted bruising on the baby’s face during a home visit and recommended the child be seen at a hospital.
Herreros pleaded guilty to assaulting the child to his severe injury and danger of his life at the Midlothian property in May 2022 during an appearance at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last year. On Monday, he was back in the dock for sentencing where Sheriff Christopher Dickson said he had carried out “a very serious offence where you shook [the child] resulting in multiple fractures.”
“Given the nature and the seriousness of this offence I consider a custodial sentence the only appropriate disposal in this case,” the Sheriff added. Herreros was jailed for 21 months and handed a non-harassment order banning him from any contact with the child for three years.
Prosecutor Matthew Miller previously read out a prepared written narration to the court detailing the assault on the baby boy. Mr Miller said Herreros was employed as a part time care assistant and had been tasked with looking after the child while the baby’s mother spent time in hospital in May 2022, reports the Daily Record.
The court heard a health worker visited the property to carry out a routine health check the following month and noticed the child had a bruise to his right cheek. The baby boy was taken to the capital’s Royal Hospital for Children for an assessment where bruises to his cheek and his nose were found.
Medics carried out two “skeletal surveys” on the child a nd discovered further injuries including three fractured ribs and four fractures to each of his legs. The court was told doctors had concluded there was “no plausible medical explanation” for the injuries and that the child “needed protection from ongoing and significant harm”.
It was determined the baby had suffered the injuries after being “gripped tightly and shaken” and could have been caused over “a very short period of 30 seconds”. The young victim was taken into the emergency care of a foster family and Herreros later sent an email to police and social services admitting what he had done on June 28, 2022.
The court was told Herreros, from Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, told officers: “Can you come and interview me, I think I did the ribs. I have shaken [the child] once and after hearing it was a shake I think it was me. It was ages ago but please come.”
He also told officers during a police interview: “I swear on [the child’s] life it wasn’t that hard.” Mr Miller told the court the young victim has made a full recovery from his injuries.
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