Baby’s accidents in comparison with excessive pace crash after being shaken by boozed-up dad

Tony Bartlett, 39, a postman from Devon, was found guilty of murdering his four-week-old son Atticus by shaking him following a booze-fuelled night out in July 2022

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A dad has been convicted of murdering his infant son by violently shaking him after downing eight pints. Tony Bartlett, 39, shook his four-week-old son Atticus to death at their home after a night out on July 16, 2022.

The court heard that Atticus suffered severe internal injuries to his brain and spinal cord, passing away in hospital a week later. The little one also had three rib fractures that couldn’t be explained by attempts to resuscitate him, the jury was informed.

Following a four-week trial at Bristol Crown Court, a jury today (Wednesday) found him guilty of murder. He is due to be sentenced later this month.

Bartlett, a postman from Axminster, Devon, denied both manslaughter and murder charges. As his verdict was announced, he held his head in his hands and broke down in tears.

His former partner and Atticus’ mum, Evelyn Ballentyne, was initially arrested but later treated as a witness. She wasn’t charged with any criminal offence and testified during Bartlett’s trial.

The jury was told how Bartlett and Ballentyne had visited a pub and comedy club for their first night out since Atticus’s birth on the evening of the incident.

Ballentyne’s parents, Rachel and Andrew Donovan, came over to the family’s home in Chard, Somerset, to babysit. Over the course of the evening, Bartlett drank 8.5 pints of beer before heading home just before 11pm with Ballentyne, the court heard.

Prosecutor Charles Row KC told the trial that Bartlett’s “loss of temper and frustration” was “almost certainly fuelled” by eight and a half pints of alcohol.

He said: “Mr Bartlett can’t admit to himself that when he was drunk, in a moment of pure violence, he did something that he will regret for the rest of his life.”

In her statement to police following the incident, Ballentyne explained that after her parents had departed, she headed upstairs to remove her makeup, leaving Bartlett downstairs on the sofa with Atticus.

Feeding Atticus proved challenging and could take up to an hour on occasions, the court was told. That particular evening, he had been “grizzly” and was taking considerable time to consume his milk.

However, when Ballentyne returned downstairs just minutes later, she said she heard the four-week-old, who remained on Bartlett’s lap, “make two big gulps as if he was trying to breathe but couldn’t”.

She immediately took hold of the baby, but he had “gone all floppy” and grey, prompting her to shake him as he was “not breathing” and she desperately wanted to “wake him up”.

The jury was told she began screaming, handed the infant back to Bartlett and attempted to seek assistance from neighbours.

Ballentyne dialled 111 and informed the call handler that foamy substance and milk were emerging from the baby’s nose. She said: “My baby’s not breathing, can you please come.

“He’s not breathing, he’s four weeks old, please hurry.”

A medical expert said Atticus’ injuries were consistent with those usually sustained in “high speed traffic accidents or falling from a multi storey building”.

Paediatric neurosurgeon Amedeo Calisto, who examined the baby’s injuries, added that the four-week-old had sustained “significant head trauma” where veins at the top of the head had been “stretched and broken”.

He told jurors that no “natural cause would have caused this” and “normal or rough handling of children” would not have resulted in Atticus’ injuries.

Speaking to police later that night, Bartlett said Atticus “seemed to make some stuttering sounds” and “all of a sudden he just seems lifeless and all of a sudden he just seemed more lifeless and he made this weird breathless sound”.

In a police interview two days after the incident, Bartlett said he gave Atticus a bottle when Ballentyne went upstairs but he wouldn’t drink it. He added he was “rubbing and patting” Atticus and bouncing him on his knee but thought he was gassy.

He said a few moments later he released some gas and made a gulping sound “almost like it was his last breath”.

When asked by officers if he caused the injuries, he said: “I don’t think so, no. I didn’t shake him”.

However, at a later police interview in October that year, Bartlett said: “Maybe I was drunk, I didn’t handle him correctly.”

The jury also heard that Ballentyne had confided in a nurse around the time of the incident, saying: “I know something happened in that two minutes I was out of the room but I don’t know what.”

Paramedics who arrived at the scene described it as “chaotic”, with a neighbour performing CPR on the child.

Atticus was rushed by ambulance to Musgrove Park Hospital before being transferred to Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) in the early hours of the following morning.

Bartlett was arrested the next day at the hospital where Ballentyne told nurses she was convinced her partner was innocent. “He would never hurt his son,” she stated.

After both parents were informed Atticus was “unlikely to live an independent life”, the four-week-old was taken off a ventilator on 23 July.

The court heard how Ballentyne told a police officer – and later hospital staff – that she had shaken Atticus in an attempt to revive him after hearing gasping noises.

Defence barrister Nigel Power KC informed the jury that Ms Ballentyne admitted on four separate occasions that she had shaken Atticus. However, Ms Ballentyne now firmly maintains that she did not shake her son.

In a police interview, Ballentyne claimed Atticus was “already lifeless when I came into the living room,” according to the jury.

While summarising the evidence, Mr Justice Cavanagh KC noted that the couple began their relationship in July 2019, but it had been fraught with ups and downs.

Ballentyne admitted they had physical altercations where there “would be pushing and shoving from both of us” and that they had labelled each other as “hot-headed”.

After the hearing, Detective Superintendent Lorett Spierenburg said: “This is a devastating case in which a very young baby has lost his life as the direct result of a violent and cruel act.

“The loss of Atticus has had a profound effect on all those who loved him.

“Tony Bartlett was alone with Atticus when he suffered these catastrophic injuries and the medical evidence gathered during the investigation proves he was solely responsible for causing them, despite his claims of innocence.

“Our thoughts are very much with Atticus’s family who’ve had to endure a lengthy and complex police investigation, followed by a trial. They’ve shown great dignity and courage throughout.”

Bartlett is set to receive his sentence on July 24.