Armagh man who caused baby ‘catastrophic’ brain injuries jailed for 20 years – The Irish Times

A Co Armagh man who shook his baby son so violently that it caused “catastrophic” brain injuries has been told he will spend the next 20 years behind bars for the child’s murder.

Lewis Oliver Rowland sustained life-changing brain injuries in November 2015 and was left with a range of disabilities when he was 13 weeks old.

His 29-year-old father Craig Rowland, from Millington Park in Portadown, denied murdering his son.

He stood trial last October and at the conclusion of a four-week trial, the jury of eight men and four women convicted him on a charge of murder.

Mr Justice O’Hara said that despite the jury’s verdict, Rowland continues to deny responsibility for what he did and has blamed medical staff for his son’s death.

Also sentenced today was Lewis’s mother Laura Graham, who is 32 and from Edward Street in Lurgan.

Before the murder trial, both she and Rowland admitted a charge of wilfully neglecting their son on November 20th, 2015 by failing to obtain timely medical treatment.

Graham was handed a combination order consisting of three years probation and 100 hours of community service for the child cruelty charge.

On that same charge, Rowland had a 12 month sentence imposed that will run concurrently with the 20-year sentence.