Babysitter gets nine years for smashing girl's skull

A BABYSITTER who smashed an eight-month-old baby girl's skull in three places because she was upsetting his plans to watch a football match has been jailed for nine years.

Douglas Cooper, 24, of Bonnyrigg, cried in the dock as a jury convicted him of attempting to murder the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

During the trial the court heard that doctors who treated the tot said the injuries were similar to those sustained by children in road traffic accidents or after a fall from the first floor of a building or above.

The incident happened on January 12 last year at an address in Midlothian.

Passing sentence, temporary judge John Beckett QC told Cooper, a first offender, he had committed a crime involving "gross violence".

He also ordered that Cooper be on licence for three years after he is released from custody.