A FACTORY worker who shook his girlfriend's baby son to death while she nipped out for teabags has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years today. (Wednesday, December 19)

Richard Morgan killed 13-month-old Slater Sharkey out of frustration, but told jurors he had not ‘laid a finger’ on him.

A post mortem examination revealed around 25 bruises on his body and medical experts agreed the brain injury, which caused his death, must have been caused deliberately.

Morgan, 33, formerly of Owen Terrace, Tantobie, Stanley, County Durham, was convicted of manslaughter yesterday, (Tuesday, December 18) following a four-week trial at Newcastle Crown Court.

Sentencing him today, Mr Justice King said: “Your killing of Slater was the result primarily of your forceful shaking of the child, in a momentary loss of control, at a time when you had become frustrated by his whingeing and crying due to him in all likelihood being separated from his mother.

“Whatever the circumstances leading you to becoming frustrated at the child's behaviour, nothing justifies Slater becoming treated in this way.”

The judge said Morgan did not intend to inflict serious harm or kill Slater on December 11, 2010, and accepted he had been a good father to his own two children.

Slater's 31-year-old mother, Rachel Peacock, a fellow factory worker, had been living with Morgan, a former Royal Navy recruit, for two months before the incident.

She was cleared of causing or allowing her son's death, but she was convicted of a cruelty charge relating to an incident a month earlier when she did not take him to hospital despite the advice of her GP.

She cried and breathed a sigh of relief when she was spared jail and instead given a 12-month community order with supervision by Mr Justice King.

He said the single episode of neglect had not contributed to her son's death.

Morgan claimed he had left the baby in the living room but found him face down on the floor when he returned from the toilet.

When Peacock returned from the shops they rushed his lifeless body to Shotley Bridge Hospital, before they were transferred to the University Hospital of North Durham, where attempts to save his life proved unsuccessful.

Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Steve Chapman said: "This was all about Richard Morgan taking responsibility for his actions.

"He has always said it was not him, and ultimately the jury found him guilty.”