Fife woman attempted to murder baby and blame child's mother

A Fife woman attempted to murder a five-month-old baby and then tried to blame the child's mother for the attack.

Kimberly Dow inflicted potentially life-threatening injuries on the boy when she was supposed to be looking after him during an overnight stay at her home in Dunfermline.

Dow was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at the High Court in Edinburgh for actions a judge described as "unexplained and quite possibly inexplicable".

Lady Ross said the injuries inflicted on the child could have caused his death and that there was no clear information about the long-term prognosis for the victim.

She said Dow had carried out a "very serious offence against a vulnerable infant in your care."

Lady Ross added that Dow, 34, "tried to evade, or at least minimise, responsibility. Your actions are unexplained and quite possibly inexplicable."

The judge said Dow had shown no concern, then or now, for the welfare of the baby she attacked.

Dow denied the murder bid during a trial last month and lodged a special defence claiming that if the offence was committed it was not committed by her, but by the child's mother.

However, a jury found her guilty of attempting to murder the infant on 17 March 2022 at her home by shaking him, inflicting trauma to his head and causing injury to his head by means unknown to the prosecutor, to his severe injury and to the danger of his life.

Advocate depute Michelle Brannagan told jurors there was evidence of a single occasion when the victim suffered injury and that was when he was in the care of Dow.

When the baby was taken to hospital after the attack he was found to have 15 distinct and separate bruises to his face, as well as "numerous" retinal haemorrhages to both eyes.

The baby was also discovered to have significant haemorrhaging around the brain. The bleeding was so extensive and in so many areas of the brain that it was likely the child suffered a prolonged period of shaking.

Ms Brannagan told the jury it was "no accident" and that evidence suggested the child was uninjured and behaving completely normally when he was dropped off at Dow's home.

She said the incrimination of the mother was "a red herring" without "a single piece of evidence" to support it.

During accounts given by Dow she maintained that she put the child on a couch and left briefly but when she returned he was on the floor and had fallen.

In one message she said the child had an accident and "gave himself a sore one".

The mother of the baby said she had no issues or concerns after Dow previously looked after the child when she and her mother contracted Covid.

She told the court: "He came back his normal, wee self - happy and content."

The woman said that on the occasion of the attack Dow phoned her and asked if she could take the child for the night. She said she tried and failed to make contact with Dow after she left her son in his care, but later heard the claim that he fell off a sofa.

She then received a message telling her to hurry up and come for the child as he was screaming and "tensing" his body.

The mother said Dow tried to apologise when they met.

Defence solicitor advocate Gordon Martin said that Dow had suffered adverse childhood experiences of her own, but weaned herself off drugs later in life.

He told the court: "There is no suggestion that she is someone who would reoffend provided she manages to remain drug free."

Mr Martin added: "It is inevitable that the court will impose a custodial sentence and she is aware of that."