Father Who Punched His Two-Day-Old Daughter To Death Found Dead In Prison Cell

On November 12, 2017, a man who punched and shook his two-day-old baby daughter to death was found dead in his prison cell. 22-year-old Liam Deane from Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, was found dead in his cell at HMP Leeds in the early hours of the day about a month after he was jailed for subjecting his newborn girl Luna to a horrific attack. According to Independent, Deane was convicted of murder and handed a life sentence after a court heard that he attacked the baby girl when she "would not stop crying," leaving her with "catastrophic brain injuries."

The horrifying incident occurred when Baby Luna was left in the care of her father while her mum went to take a nap on July 10. Deane broke down and admitted he was responsible for the attack when interviewed by police, reportedly claiming that he lost his temper when his daughter kept crying. Deane admitted to punching Luna in the face, squeezing her body and arms and shaking her so much that she was found with injuries to her brain, body and face. A doctor concluded that the newborn died after suffering head trauma, leaving her with "catastrophic brain injuries."

A month into his jail sentence, Deane was found covered in blood in his prison cell. According to BBC, his 29-year-old cellmate, John Westland—who was serving a sentence for rape and grievous bodily harm—was convicted of the murder after a 2018 trial at Leeds Crown Court. According to BBC, while sentencing Westland to serve a minimum of 19 years, Judge Rodney Jameson QC told the inmate: "You told the jury that you believed Liam Deane was a sex offender, but he was not. He had committed a very serious crime, but had admitted it from the first and was trying to come to terms with what he had done."

"It is an unfortunate consequence of life in prison that those who are themselves guilty of serious offenses, as you were, will find another inmate to look down on," the judge continued. "Given the nature of your own conviction, some might find that to be rank hypocrisy." While the West Yorkshire Police agreed that Deane's killing of his newborn daughter as "an appalling crime that tore her family apart", they said he was entitled to serve his time in prison. During Westland's week-long trial, jurors heard the inmate used a broken bottle of aftershave to kill his cellmate and that the victim had shown signs of asphyxiation caused by pressure on his head and face.

 
Shards of glass were found on a chair near the bunk bed with fingerprints matching Westland's. Addressing the jury, Westland said that Deane was regularly called a "baby killer" around the prison and faced daily threats and taunting because of the nature of his conviction. He also claimed his cellmate was in financial debt with other prisoners. Westland was originally jailed in 2008 after he admitted raping and assaulting a woman in her 50s who he had met in a nightclub. He allegedly punched his victim in the face and left her with serious injuries, including a fractured jaw. He also had a string of previous convictions for attacking older women.