A woman who burned a nine-month-old baby boy’s bottom with a hairdryer and fractured his skull has been jailed for four years.
Lyndsay Lawrence, 29, attacked the infant at an address in Camelon, Falkirk, on 4 December 2020 while looking after him for his mother.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told her they were “undoubtedly serious offences”.
Lord Tyre stated: “Blows to a baby’s head and shaking are obviously intentional injuries.
“There can be no excuse whatever for the infliction of such injuries on a small and vulnerable child entrusted to your care.”
The judge added: “To make matters worse, they were committed while you were in a position of trust in relation to the child.”
Lawrence, formerly of Camelon, denied any wrongdoing but was convicted last month following a trial.
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Advocate depute Lynsey Rodger told the court that the boy’s demeanour changed after being left alone with Lawrence.
The prosecutor said up until that point, he had not been suffering from a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and significant burns to his bottom.
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Ms Rodger stated: “There was a high pitch shriek, a grunt or a noise. His eyes went back. He was rigid and then he was floppy. He wasn’t normal at that point.
“There is only one person that knows what happened to the baby on 4 December. That person is the person who caused the injuries.”
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The prosecutor said the injuries were “non-accidental” and “deliberate”.
She added: “The evidence, when you put it together, tells you that the person who caused the injuries is the accused.”
Lawrence, who sought help for the boy when he became ill, denied that she hit or dropped him.
The jury deleted a charge of attempted murder and instead found Lawrence guilty of assaulting the boy to his severe injury and to the danger of his life.
She was also convicted of wilfully exposing the child to unnecessary suffering or injury.
Sentencing Lawrence on Tuesday, Lord Tyre stated: “The jury were clearly satisfied that you inflicted the baby’s head injuries, including but not restricted to those caused by shaking him.
“They were satisfied on the evidence that those injuries were of sufficient severity to cause danger to his life.
“They were also satisfied that you had burned him on the bottom with a hairdryer.”
The court heard Lawrence continues to deny injuring the boy.
Lord Tyre added: “And it appears that you have little insight into the harm that you have caused.”
The judge told jurors that it was a “rather distressing and unpleasant case” but noted that the boy “happily appears” to have made a “good recovery” from his injuries.
Following the court case, Detective Constable Jonathan McRitchie said: “Lawrence’s actions resulted in serious injuries to a defenceless child and she will now face the consequences.
“This type of behaviour is completely unacceptable, and her conviction should send out a clear message that Police Scotland is committed to bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.”
The former head of royal protection says he warned the Royal Family about Mohamed al Fayed’s reputation before Princess Diana took her sons on holiday with him.
The women say he raped and sexually assaulted them while they worked at the luxury department store, prowling the shop floor and “cherry-picking” women to be brought to his executive suite.
Now, Mr Davies says people were aware of the Egyptian businessman’s reputation as far back as the 1990s, and that he raised concerns about him to the Royal Family.
“This was a man who I would be concerned [about] if a relative of mine was going on holiday with him, let alone the future king and his brother and their mother, Princess Diana,” Dai Davies told Sky News.
In July 1997, a month before she died, Princess Diana went on holiday with Fayed and his wife to their residence in St Tropez.
She took the two young princes with her – a holiday Prince Harry described as “heaven” in his 2023 memoir Spare.
“I was horrified because I was aware of some of the allegations even then that were going around,” said Mr Davies.
“I was aware that he had tried very hard to ingratiate himself with the Royal Family and obviously knowing, as I did, the reputation he was alleged [to have] then, I was concerned, and I took the opportunity to inform the Royal Family.”
Mr Davies says he was told: “Her Majesty is aware.”
“The rest is history,” he said.
Buckingham Palace told Sky News it had no comment on the allegations.
Fulham ‘deeply disturbed’ by allegations
Fulham FC, a football club that was owned by Fayed between 1997 and 2013, has saidit is “deeply troubled” by the dozens of “disturbing” sexual abuse allegations against the businessman.
The Premier League club also said it is “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected” by this alleged behaviour.
However, Gaute Haugenes, who managed the club’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC extra precautions were taken to protect female players from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur. We protected the players.”
The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees said they aimed to seek justice for the victims of a “vast web of abuse”.
Lily Allen says she had her children “for all the wrong reasons,” at a “high pressure” point in her career when she felt “overwhelmed”.
The singer and actress had her two daughters, Marnie, 12 and Ethel, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper when she was in her mid-20s.
By the time she became a mum, she’d already had hit singles including Smile and The Fear, released two studio albums and received a Brit Award for best British female solo artist.
Speaking about motherhood on the BBC podcast Miss Me?, which Allen hosts with her long-time friend Miquita Oliver, she said: “I think I had children for all the wrong reasons, really.
“Because I was yearning for unconditional love, which I haven’t felt in my life since I was a child.”
The now 39-year-old star added: “And also, my career was at such high speed, high pressure, and I felt like very overwhelmed by what was happening. I just didn’t get much respite you know?
“And I felt like the only way to stop people hassling me was to say, ‘It’s not about me, actually this is about this other person that’s inside me’.
When asked by Oliver if it worked, Allen says: “Yeah, they did leave me alone. I don’t think I really understood what was happening, what I got myself into.”
The daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, she went on to discuss her own childhood.
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“My mum, bless her, had children really early as well, and she really struggled. But she doesn’t really talk about the struggle. And so… She inadvertently gaslit me into thinking it was, you know, easy.
“You just sort of throw the kid over your shoulder and you get on with it.
“Her job was very static, and in one place and went to an office and mine wasn’t like that at all. It wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t easy.”
The ‘nasty scars’ caused by absent parents
Allen previously told the Radio Times podcast that while she loves her children, having them “ruined her career”.
She said her decision to prioritise them over her pop career was a decision she made so as not to inflict the “nasty scars” of being an “absent” parent onto them.
She also said the myth of having it all “really annoyed” as it simply was not true.
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Allen, whose younger brother is Game Of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, married Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2020.
Away from her music career, Allen has branched out into acting over the last few years, starring in two plays in London’s West End, and winning a role in Sky drama Dreamland last year.
An investigation has been launched after “Jail Starmer” graffiti was daubed on the window of an MP’s office.
The Met Police received an allegation of criminal damage on Saturday in relation to the incident at Clive Efford’s office in Eltham & Chislehurst, South London.
This is a new seat which was won by Labour at the general election, though in 2019 it was notionally Conservative.
On Friday night the window was painted with white graffiti which says “Jail Starmer”.
Sources told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby that an image of the vandalism has been circulating among Labour MPs’ WhatsApp groups this morning. However, Mr Efford has downplayed the incident.
There have been growing concerns about the safety of politicians in recent years, following the murders of Jo Cox and Sir David Amess.
MPs have described working in an increasingly hostile environment, with experiences ranging from death threats and abuse to attacks on their constituency offices and protests at their homes.
In a statement, the Met Police said: “On Saturday 21, September, police received an allegation of criminal damage to an office building in Westmount Road SE9.
“Graffiti had been daubed on the premises the previous day.
“An investigation has been launched and enquiries are ongoing.
“Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting CAD 2672/21Sep.”