Mum saved toddler’s life after catching factory worker’s sick attack on baby monitor

A man has been caged for thirty years after he tried to kill a crying toddler. Lewis Prince punched, strangled and smothered the two-year-old defenceless child.

And the thug tried to deny intending to commit murder, instead admitting only assault. But a jury took less than two hours to see through his lies and return a guilty verdict on the charge of attempted murder in June.

Prince’s attack was thwarted by the child’s mother who witnessed it on a baby camera app on her phone. She raced to the address where she pushed Prince, of Browning Road, Swinton away from the screaming tot, LancsLive reports.

Prince then fled the scene but was arrested on the M61 motorway. The 29-year-old has now been sentenced for his sick crime.

Prince pleaded guilty to two new charges of having no insurance or licence when he drove away from the child’s home in December. That morning, he had been asked to watch the child at their home in Blackpool.

However, his anger soon boiled over into a sickening attack. As the child cried, Prince launched his assault at which point the child’s mum happened to log onto an app on her phone which allowed her to see video of their cot, as she would normally do.

She ran back home as the child screamed helplessly. During the trial, four harrowing, six-second recordings of the attack which saw Prince punching and slapping the baby were played to court.

In the footage, he his seen grabbing the baby’s neck, pinning them down and repeatedly throwing them down as he attempted to get back up. At one stage, he stood on the child to pin them to the ground.

In the struggle, Prince left the room to get an ice pack for the baby and returned with a bag of frozen peas which he pushed onto their face, causing more distress. Sentencing, Judge Robert Altham noted this was “clearly not done out of concern but to cover up what he had done”.

When the mum got home, she ran up the stairs and pushed Prince out of the way to get to her child. Prince pinned her down, grabbed her arm and tried to stop her calling the police.

He denied hurting the child demanding the mother showed him bruises. “I don’t need to”, she said. “You already know what you’ve done.”

The woman was eventually able to run to neighbours to call 999 and resisted his pleas to come with her. He instead drove away alone but was arrested before he could make it home. Meanwhile, the baby was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Prosecuting, Alex Langhorn said a paramedic who attended reported seeing bruises “as you would get at a boxing match, that’s the only time I’ve seen any bruising like that”. No medical treatment was required for the child, who has since gone on to make a full recovery.

Defending, Andrew Scott said there was little mitigation other than the fact it was not a pre-mediated attack. He said Prince had argued with his partner the previous evening and was dealing with the aftermath of that as well as longer-running problems.

He said: “He reflects on the problems he had, the breakdown of the relationship, the pressures he’d put himself under, that he was drinking heavily and heading towards dire financial straits. He was a young man who had brought himself to the brink of breakdown.

“Something had to give. Unfortunately for him, unfortunately for [the baby], unfortunately for [the mum], it culminated in this.”

Judge Altham disagreed with the author of a pre-sentencing report and said Prince should be classified as a dangerous offender. He said a whole life sentence was not merited but said Prince should only be released upon a parole board decision after at least two thirds of his sentence.

He said: “For someone to be able to do this to a small child without any real motivation, it’s necessary for there to be a check on him before he is released to the public.”

The judge handed down a 30 year extended sentence which is made of a 26 year custodial element and a four year extended licence. He will only be eligible for parole after 20 years.

A restraining order blocking any communication with the child was issued indefinitely but no restraining order was issued in relation to the mother.

DS Isobel Garratt, of West CID, said: “Prince’s sickening attack could quite easily have resulted in the victim losing his life. Fortunately, he has since made a full recovery but anyone who watched the harrowing footage of the assault will know that the outcome could quite easily have been different. SIMILAR ARTICLES TO THIS

“I cannot imagine what the victim’s mother went through having to watch the footage both at the time and then re-live it during the trial. I would like to take this chance to praise her for the bravery she has shown throughout this process.

“I know Prince’s abhorrent crime committed against her defenceless child continues to have a profound impact on her. I welcome the sentence handed down today, which reflects the serious nature of Prince’s crime and the dangerousness he poses.

“Finally I want to praise the professionalism of all my colleagues who worked on this case, from the officers who were first called to the scene, to the detectives, uniformed colleagues and police staff who worked on compiling the evidence that brought Prince before the courts and got justice for the victim and his loved ones.”