A man has been jailed for 30 months following a conviction on charges of child cruelty and assault causing actual bodily harm.

Kaylem Sugden was sentenced at Durham Crown Court by Judge Jo Kidd, who presided over his trial this week.

The, now, 25-year-old defendant, of The Grove, Coxhoe, County Durham, denied both charges, one stating that being a person aged 16 or above, wilfully assaulted or ill-treated a child to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health, an offence said to have taken place between September 8, 2020 and September 10, 2021, and assaulted the same child causing actual bodily harm, on September 8, 2021.

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Among injuries the child was said to have suffered were to a forearm and thigh, plus facial bruising and marks.

Sugden denied the charges at a plea hearing at the court in late May and went on trial this week, being found guilty on both counts by the trial jury, on the third day of the hearing.

Following the unanimous verdicts, Judge Kidd imposed the prison sentence, totalling two years and six months.

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