A MAN who killed a 15-week-old baby boy after he flew into a rage and violently shook the youngster was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years behind bars.
Passing sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday, judge Lord Boyd said Burgess had so far led an "unproductive and selfish" life, marked by alcohol and cannabis misuse.
He said: "The death of any young child is always devastating but even more so when the death is by criminal acts of another person."
A consultant who examined him before the boy died in hospital two days after the attack said the extent and degree of the haemorrhaging was the worst he had seen since qualifying as a doctor in 1993.
Paul Burgess, 25, had been tasked with taking care of Zaiidyn Burke while his partner was out, but had been smoking cannabis and drunk a "significant amount of alcohol" the night before.
Burgess, who was in a relationship with the child's mum Jade Caven, seemed anxious when she returned from taking a young girl to hospital after she fell.
She was gone for about an hour.
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Burgess told her the baby had not had much of the milk he had tried to feed him earlier, which immediately concerned Miss Caven as Zaiidyn was normally a good feeder.
When she went to her 15-week-child she saw his lips and face were turning blue.
While the couple tried to resuscitate him, they called the emergency services.
When the ambulance arrived, Miss Caven was "hysterical" but Burgess – who had started a relationship with the boy's mother after she gave birth to Zaiidyn – was calm. The relationship has since ended.
Zaiidyn was rushed to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and then transferred to a hospital in Glasgow.The judge heard a scan of the baby's head and spine showed he had the type of brain injury caused in baby-shaking cases.
3The young boy died two days later on October 29, 2012, with his parents at his bedside – Burgess was at a Halloween party.
Had Burgess pleaded not guilty and the case had gone to trial, Lord Boyd told him he would have been jailed for nine years.
At a previous hearing when Burgess admitted his guilt to a charge of culpable homicide, the court was told by advocate deputy Iain McSporran, prosecuting: "The Crown accepts that the accused, for some reason as yet unknown, but most probably associated with difficulty feeding the baby, suffered a loss of temper and shook him with sufficient force to cause fatal brain injuries."
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