A father who shook and killed his baby daughter when he lost his temper as he watched a football match on TV has been jailed for 10 years.
Mark Lackenby, 32, had placed a bet on Arsenal beating Barcelona in their Champions League clash on February 16 2011, and the bet also included the London side’s forward Robin van Persie scoring the first goal of the match, a jury at Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Lackenby was so angry when Barcelona’s David Villa put the Spanish team into the lead he lashed out at his five-week-old daughter Ruby, leaving her with injuries from which she later died.
Yesterday Lackenby was cleared of murdering his daughter at their home in Goldthorpe, South Yorkshire but was found guilty of her manslaughter by a jury of 10 women and two men.
He was also found guilty of causing Ruby grievous bodily harm when he broke her ribs a week or so before he inflicted the fatal injuries.
Lackenby, now of Coniston Drive, Bolton-upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire, was in tears as the judge described what had happened when he was left alone with his daughter as he watched the match as her mother was upstairs having a bath.
He had denied hurting Ruby.
Sentencing Lackenby, the judge, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, told him: “It’s frankly despicable and defies belief that anyone could do such a thing to their own baby in such circumstances.”