A care assistant who left a nine-week-old baby with horror injuries after violently shaking him has been jailed and banned from having contact with his victim.
Jose Herreros grabbed hold of the baby boy by the body and forcibly shook him causing serious injuries including 11 fractured bones to his ribs and legs. Herreros, 26, was forced to admit the shocking attack after a health worker spotted bruising to the baby’s face during a home visit and recommended the child be taken to hospital.
The brute pleaded guilty to assaulting the child to his severe injury and danger of his life at a property in Midlothian in May 2022 when appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last year. Herreros returned to the dock for sentencing on Monday where Sheriff Christopher Dickson said he had carried out “a very serious of offence where you shook [the child] resulting in multiple fractures”.
Sheriff Dickson added: “Given the nature and the seriousness of this offence I consider a custodial sentence the only appropriate disposal in this case.” Herreros was jailed for 21 months and given a non-harassment order banning him from having any contact with the child for three years.
Previously prosecutor Matthew Miller read out a prepared written narration to the court detailing the assault on the baby boy. Mr Miller said Herreros was employed as a part time care assistant and had been tasked with looking after the child while the baby’s mother spent time in hospital in May 2022.
The court heard a health worked visited the property to carry out a routine health check the following month and noticed the child had a bruise to his right cheek. The baby boy was taken to the capital’s Royal Hospital for Children for an assessment where bruises to his cheek and his nose were found.
Medics then carried out two “skeletal surveys” on the child and discovered further injuries including three fractured ribs and four fractures to each of his legs. The court was told doctors had concluded there was “no plausible medical explanation” for the injuries and that the child “needed protection from ongoing and significant harm”.
It was determined the baby had suffered the injuries after being “gripped tightly and shaken” and could have been caused over “a very short period of 30 seconds”. The young victim was taken into the emergency care of a foster family and Herreros later sent an email to police and social services admitting what he had done on June 28, 2022.
The court was told Herreros, from Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, told officers: “Can you come and interview me, I think I did the ribs. I have shaken [the child] once and after hearing it was a shake I think it was me. It was ages ago but please come.”
He also told officers during a police interview: “I swear on [the child’s] life it wasn’t that hard.” Mr Miller told the court the young victim has made a full recovery from his injuries.
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