Samuel Warnock: Father who shook baby to death told hospital dying daughter was being a ‘drama queen’

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A drug-dealing father who fatally injured his three-year-old daughter and retreated to his room to smoke hashish whereas paramedics sought to save her has been jailed.

Samuel Warnock, 29, claimed that he had fallen down the steps together with his daughter Miyah and told his accomplice that bruising on her physique was due to a “loss of sensitivity in his hands” which affected how he dealt with her.

Officers from Wiltshire Police have been known as to the couple’s deal with in Cornfield Road, Devizes, on 20 September 2021 after Miyah turned unresponsive whereas within the care of her father.

A court docket heard that Warnock told a receptionist at Bristol Children’s Hospital that his daughter was being a “drama queen”, and continued to deal Class A and B medication over the course of the month she spent within the intensive care unit.

Despite the perfect efforts of the emergency companies, she died on 19 October having suffered a traumatic mind head damage which had left her with “unsurvivable brain injuries”.

Appearing at Winchester Crown Court in January, Warnock pleaded responsible to manslaughter, shortly earlier than he was set to stand trial charged with Miyah’s homicide, and has been jailed for 14 years.

His accomplice Jasmine Warnock was not current when her baby collapsed on 20 September, however pleaded responsible to youngster cruelty by failing to shield Miyah from assault.

A choose heard that the couple had launched into a relationship in 2017, which had been unstable and sad. Both smoked hashish and through a separation in 2018, Ms Warnock reported him to the police for his aggressive behaviour, jealousy and his persistent texting and behavior of turning up at her work place.

Despite being conscious of his aggressive behaviour, they resumed their relationship and welcomed Miyah in June 2020.

The following month, Warnock was arrested exterior a membership for being drunk and disorderly, in addition to assaulting an emergency employee whereas resisting arrest.

During the course of her quick life, Miyah’s maternal grandparents had seen bruising round her torso which appeared to seem like fingermarks. Such was their concern, Ms Warnock’s father requested his daughter to ship him a every day {photograph} of Miyah and told her “he wanted to keep an eye on his granddaughter”.

Friends additionally told police that they’d been involved for Warnock’s “rough handling” of his toddler daughter, and that he had been seen smoking hashish close to her Moses basket.

On one other event, he had picked Miyah up with little assist to her head, and was seen shifting her physique forwards and backwards earlier than stating it was “like a scene of the Lion King”.

When questioned about her bruising, Warnock told his accomplice that he had fallen down the steps after his knee had given away, and blamed numbness in his fingers.

Shortly earlier than the deadly incident, Miyah was left within the sole care of her father after her mom returned to her work as a chef in a native pub.

“There is a pattern of messages that he was increasingly resentful and angry and jealous and that is notwithstanding the fact that he had quite a lot of support from both maternal and paternal grandparents,” prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC mentioned.

Just 25 minutes after being left alone with Miyah, Warnock known as 999 to report that she had “thrown a fit” and had stopped respiration.

Upon the arrival of police and paramedics, Warnock turned agitated and aggressive whereas his accomplice was visibly upset, earlier than he retreated to his room to smoke hashish.

By the time Miyah arrived at hospital, her coronary heart was beating however she was deeply unconscious, whereas Warnock told a receptionist that “his baby had been unwell yesterday, she’d had a fit and was being a drama queen”.

“There was an overall sense this was a strange response to the situation,” Ms Carberry KC mentioned.

While she remained critically unwell in hospital, textual content messages on his cellphone confirmed that Warnock had continued to deal in Class A and B medication. Despite experiences that he has responded unusually to his daughter’s situation, the choose famous that folks usually react in “quite bizarre ways” throughout anxious circumstances.

A CT and MRI scan discovered a sample of accidents in line with extreme shaking, with widespread haemorraghes behind the eyes.

In his police interview, Warnock claimed that Miyah had woken up crying and that he had been “bobbing her up and down” earlier than she fell unconscious.

Despite his preliminary denials, he pleaded responsible to her manslaughter, with the court docket told that the pleas have been accepted following session with the chief crown prosecutor and the baby’s maternal grandparents.

Representing Mrs Warnock, Sallie Bennett-Jenkins KC mentioned that her shopper entered her responsible plea on the premise that she didn’t witness any assault on Miyah.

“Very simply, her case is that she ignored those red flags and concerns of her own family about her then-partner, now husband, and his volatility,” Ms Carberry KC mentioned. “The bruises to her baby were obvious to her and ought to have served as a warning sign that her baby was abused but she chose to then and for some time, to believe Samuel Warnock when he provided her with excuses as to how their daughter was injured.

“Her offending was that she failed to protect her baby daughter from assault. I make it clear she is not responsible for assaulting the baby on any occasion, she was not present when the fatal injury was inflicted.”

Sentencing the pair, the choose, Mrs Justice May, mentioned that the death got here towards a background of home abuse by Warnock towards his spouse.

She described Warnock as a “reckless and irresponsible new father, prone to anger, easily frustrated, profoundly needy and dangerously incapable of caring properly for a tiny new baby”.

The court docket heard that Mrs Warnock was a girl of earlier good character, who had been the sufferer of coercion and management by the hands of Warnock.

She has been handed a three-year neighborhood order and should undertake a 30 day rehabilitation exercise requirement.

In a quick tribute to Miyah, grandparents Andrew and Michelle Rideout mentioned: “Miyah was our princess. We are devastated by the loss of our granddaughter.

“We will never get over losing her.”