Man given life sentence for murdering ex-girlfriend's baby

Mark Simpson, 29, was found guilty of killing six-week-old Alexis Matheson, his then-girlfriend's daughter.

The baby was born on October 26 2007 but died less than two months later on December 10.

Simpson was charged with assaulting the baby girl on various occasions between November 8 and December 9, seizing hold of her, shaking her and compressing her chest, leaving her so severely injured that she died in hospital in Edinburgh.

At the High Court in Aberdeen, Judge Lord Uist sentenced Simpson to life in prison, ordering him to spend at least 20 years in jail.

Lord Uist told Simpson: "This crime did not consist of a single incident arising from a sudden loss of temper on your part but of a repeated course of violence directed at a wholly defenceless and vulnerable baby whom you should have been caring for and protecting.

"How you were able to act in such a wicked and abhorrent manner towards a helpless infant is beyond the understanding of all right-thinking people."

He went on: "The pain and agony which baby Alexis must have suffered as a result of the injuries which you inflicted upon her are unthinkable.

"This is an extreme case of repeated physical cruelty to a baby, whom you deprived of the greatest human right of all, the right to life.

"The punishment which you are about to receive must reflect that fact and public detestation of such behaviour."