Man found guilty of murdering 13-week-old baby

A man has been found guilty of murdering a 13-week-old baby who died in Kent in 2022.

Canterbury Crown Court heard Hunter Hodges suffered a "severe direct impact" to the head akin to that seen in "a high speed motorcycle collision or a multi-level fall".

Tyla Wharmby was taking care of the infant overnight while his partner, Shannon Hodges, slept. He is not the baby's biological father.

The 24-year-old man, of Prestedge Avenue in Ramsgate, had pleaded not guilty to murder and grievous bodily harm with intent but was found guilty on Thursday.

Phone data had shown that Wharmby had visited a pornography website ten minutes before the child's mother called for an ambulance for the "lifeless" infant.

She told the 999 call handler: "My two-month-old son woke up this morning with a swollen head and it's really, really squishy.

"Every time I touch his head he screams."

The baby was rushed to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in Margate.

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