A man has been remanded in custody after he was convicted of attempting to murder a four-month-old baby in a “sustained” shaking attack in Dundee.
The defenceless infant was left hours from death with an “enormous” bleed on the brain because of Marc Lannen’s actions.
The dishonest 34-year-old claimed that the baby’s catastrophic injuries were as a result of soothing him too much.
However, five doctors produced scathing evidence at his trial with all of the specialist medics insisting that shaking and blunt force trauma was to blame.
Jurors at the High Court in Dundee rejected Lannen’s sketchy version of events and found him guilty by a majority verdict of trying to murder the child in August 2018.
Judge Lord Young said: “Had it not been for the urgent intervention of the neurosurgical team at Ninewells Hospital, it seems likely he would have died and you would have been facing a more serious charge in this court.”
The child’s mother and a relative embraced as the verdict was read out with several members of the jury reduced to tears.
Lannen is remanded in custody ahead of sentencing and showed no emotion as he was led downstairs to the cells.
Denied shaking baby
The child suffered a subdural hematoma – where blood collects between the skull and the surface of the brain – as well as a “horrific” midline shift of 2cm in the centre of his brain.
Emergency surgery is usually performed when the midline shift is 5mm.
Dr Kismet-Hossain Ibrahim, the neurosurgeon who saved the baby’s life, said this was one of the worst shifts in the brain he had seen in almost 30 years of practice.
The injuries were compared to that of a “high velocity” crash victim with all five doctors producing opinions of “abusive head trauma” or “non-accidental injury”.
Retinal haemorrhaging was also discovered in one of the baby’s eyes which could not occur without significant trauma.
Lannen said in evidence: “When I have soothed him, I have maybe done it a bit too much. He always moved his head about. It was hard to control him.”
“I never physically shook him.”
Child would have died without surgery
It was revealed how the boy, now aged six, is routinely assessed and requires additional support at school with the potential for further difficulties as he gets older.
He was healthy with no underlying issues at the time of being attacked in August 2018.
Lannen was looking after the boy for several hours in the afternoon and was last known to be well at around 5pm when he was given a bottle.
The child’s mother left the property earlier in the afternoon after a “silly” argument with Lannen over his new mobile phone.
She learned her son was rushed to hospital after missing calls from Lannen and his mother, Carol McQuillan.
Lannen called his mother at 6.30pm who arrived at the flat in a taxi and immediately urged her son to call an ambulance, which arrived at around 6.55pm.
The boy was described by Lannen, his mother and a paramedic as being pale, cold to touch, clenched, producing three breaths per minute, fitting and having a dilated left pupil.
Renowned paediatric neurosurgeon, Dr Jayaratnam Jayamohan, said the boy “almost certainly” would have died without the operation.
He told the court: “From an impact point of view it can be accidental but would be a very clear event that would be highly memorable to the carers.
“It would be clear in everybody’s memory there would be something that was extraordinary or outside of normal activity that would have happened.
“Whether that’s accidental or non-accidental, to me there’s an event that’s not being revealed.”
Cause of injuries unknown
It remains unclear exactly how the injuries were inflicted but Dr Jayamohan said it may have been caused by shaking along with being thrown on a soft surface like a sofa arm or bed.
An investigation was launched after the boy was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh after Lannen failed to provide detailed information.
A consultant paediatric radiologist at the hospital, Dr Michael Jackson, said: “We are talking about a sustained episode of significant, forceful shaking.”
When asked if there was any possibility of it being an accident, he said: “Absolutely not.”
Medics who gave evidence said impossible for the injuries to occur spontaneously and without severe trauma.
Lannen, of Whitfield Rise, was found guilty of assaulting the child at an address in Dundee on August 23 2018 by shaking him, inflicting blunt force trauma to the head and causing injury to the head through unknown means.
This caused the child severe injury, permanent impairment, endangered his life and was an attempt to murder him.
Defence counsel Michael Meehan KC said he would reserve mitigation until a social work report had been prepared.
He told Lord Young that Lannen, who has no previous convictions, understood he would be locked up ahead of sentencing.
Lannen initially appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court in February 2022 before being released on bail with conditions to stay away from the boy and his mother as well as being prevented from having unsupervised contact with people under the age of 18.
He will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow next month.
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