A Co Armagh man convicted of murdering his infant son by inflicting “catastrophic” brain injuries in what medics deemed was a ‘baby-shaking’ episode was today (Thursday) told he will be sentenced next week.
Last October a jury at Belfast Crown Court found Craig Rowland guilty of murdering Lewis Oliver Rowland. The tot sustained life-changing brain injuries in November 2015 when he was just 13 weeks old. He died in October 2028 aged three from complications arising from surgery.
Following the guilty verdict, the 29-year old child killer was handed a Life Sentence by Mr Justice O’Hara. From Millington Park in Portadown, Rowland was back in Belfast Crown Court today where he was told a tariff will be imposed next Thursday (13th).
Appearing alongside him in the dock was his former partner Laura Graham, who is 32 and from Edward Street in Lurgan. The pair both admitted a charge of wilfully neglecting their son on November 20, 2015 by failing to obtain timely medical treatment.
Rowland was also charged with - and denied - murdering his son and he stood trial in Belfast last October. During the often harrowing four-week trial, the jury of eight men and four women heard that on November 20, 2015 the couple brought their baby son to Craigavon Area Hospital.
When the pair arrived at the hospital at around 1.30pm, they told medics that the evening before Lewis had been unsettled and unwell.
They also said they had put Lewis in his buggy and walked three miles from their home in Portadown to the hospital, which took around an hour, and didn’t call an ambulance as they had no phone.
The gravely ill baby underwent a CT Scan that revealed he had serious brain injuries which resulted in a permanent and severe disability.
Further examinations of Lewis on that date revealed he also had a spinal injury, a healing rib fracture and multiple bruises on his neck, head and chest. Due to the severity of his injuries, Lewis was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast that afternoon suffering from a bleed to his brain.
After eventually being released from the Royal Hospital, Lewis was taken into foster care. He couldn’t walk or talk and had to be fed through a nasal tube, but he could smile at his foster parents.
In July 2018, consideration was given regarding a longer-term feeding tube and in October 2018 the little boy underwent surgery in a paediatric intensive care unit to insert a feeding tube directly into his stomach.
The surgery was conducted on October 4, 2018 and he had further surgery on October 17 and 19 to re-adjust the feeding tube. In the early hours of October 20, Lewis developed breathing difficulties and a chest X-Ray indicated he had pneumonia. He passed away later that day, at 1.30pm, aged three.
It was the Crown’s case that the “non-accidental” and “catastrophic” brain injuries suffered by Lewis in November 2015 - which a number of medical professionals determined were as a result of the baby being shaken - played a significant role in his death.
One doctor described the brain injury which he believed was caused by shaking as “one of the “most severe” he has seen in his ten years of practice and determined it was sustained within a 24-hour period prior to Lewis being admitted to hospital on November 20, 2015.
When he was called to give evidence at the trial, Rowland admitted telling lies “here and there” to police in the aftermath of his son’s death - but denied harming his baby son.
From the witness box, Rowland accepted Lewis had sustained injuries but denied he was the one responsible. The jury rejected his version of events and convicted him, by a majority of 11 to one, of murdering his son.
During Thursday’s hearing, Rowland’s barrister Seamus McNeill KC told Mr Justice O’Hara that Lewis’s injuries “could have been inflicted in a very short time frame consisting of a period of seconds of vigorous shaking”.
He added: “In all probability, this incident occurred at a time when Mr Rowland lost his temper when he was finding himself having to deal with an unsettled child. We say the infliction of the injuries were, in all probability, as a result of a spontaneous act that lacked any pre-meditation.”
Mr McNeill also asked Mr Justice O’Hara to take into account that fact that Rowland “was 20 at the time” and that he has learning difficulties and “very limited academic ability”.
The senior judge was also addressed Graham’s barrister by Martin O’Rourke KC.
Pointing out that his client has no criminal record, Mr O’Rourke revealed that in the intervening years Graham had another baby which was subsequently “taken from her”.
Mr O’Rourke said Graham’s plea to child cruelty indicated her acceptance that she should have sought timely medical assistance for her baby son.
The defence barrister also revealed she has a low IQ and a mild learning disability, spoke of her “immaturity” in November 2015 and said that her failure to protect Lewis and seek medical care for him was due to “fear” in her relationship.
After listening to submissions from barristers for the Crown and defence, Mr Justice O’Hara said he would pass sentence next Thursday (13th). Whilst Rowland was remanded back into custody, Graham was released on continuing bail.
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