Killer attended party as baby died from shaking injuries
Paul Burgess jailed over the death of 15-week-old Zaiidyn Burke in Dumfries in October 2012.
A man who killed a 15-week-old baby by shaking him attended a Halloween party as the child was dying in hospital.
Zaiidyn Burke suffered unsurvivable brain injuries when Paul Burgess assaulted him at a property in Dumfries.
Burgess was jailed for seven-and-a-half years at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide having been charged with murder.
Previously, the court heard the 25-year-old had consumed a "significant amount of alcohol" and smoked cannabis the night before the attack when he was supposed to be caring for the child.
Passing sentence, Lord Boyd said Burgess had so far led an "unproductive and selfish" life, marked by alcohol and cannabis misuse.
The court heard while Zaiidyn's parents were at their child's side bedside in hospital, Burgess was drinking at a Halloween party dressed in costume.
He added: "The death of any young child is always devastating but even more so when the death is by criminal acts of another person."
A previous court hearing was told Burgess was left alone with the baby for about an hour on October 27, 2012, while Zaiidyn's mother Jade Caven took a young girl to hospital after she fell.
When Miss Caven returned, Burgess "seemed nervous" and said the baby had not wanted to drink much from his full bottle of milk - a claim the boy's mother found to be unusual.
She then noticed her son's lips and face were turning blue and he appeared "completely lifeless".
When the ambulance arrived, Miss Caven was "hysterical" but Burgess - who had started a relationship with the boy's mother after she gave birth to Zaiidyn - was calm. The relationship has since ended.
Zaiidyn was taken to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and then transferred to the Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow.
The judge heard a scan of the baby's head and spine showed he had the type of brain injury caused in baby-shaking cases.
A consultant who examined him said the extent and degree of the haemorrhaging was the worst he had seen since qualifying as a doctor in 1993.
Zaiidyn died on October 29, 2012, after he was taken off a life-support system.
The prosecutor told the court at the last occasion: "The Crown accepts that on that afternoon the accused, for some as yet unknown reason but most probably associated with difficulty feeding the baby, suffered a loss of temper and shook the baby with sufficient force to cause fatal brain injuries."
Lord Boyd said victim impact statements from the boy's mother and father Lee Burke set out the extent of their grief and loss.
He added there was further hurt caused by an initial "deception" by Burgess over his part in Zaiidyn's death.
"You must have been well aware that what you were doing would injure the child," he said.