A TEENAGE father has been locked up for a year after angrily shaking his 11-week-old son so hard that he caused his child brain injuries.

Thomas Peter James Ottaway lost his temper when the boy would not stop crying - only admitting his crime to his mother months later when the guilt became too much to bear.

The harm the 19-year-old, from Howe Hill, Acomb, York, inflicted on his son has left the child facing the possibility of long-term health problems such as epilepsy, and means Ottaway cannot now see him without supervision.

He will spend the next 12 months in a young offenders' institution, after receiving his punishment at a York Crown Court hearing.

The hearing also saw a court order - preventing the reporting of the fact that the baby Ottaway shook was his own son - lifted after representations from The Press.

Sentencing Ottaway, who admitted causing grievous bodily harm, Judge Stephen Ashurst told him the child was "helpless" and "you were in a position of ultimate responsibility for him".

The judge criticised Ottaway for not telling the truth earlier.

The court heard Ottaway shook the child "vigorously more than once" on May 13 last year.

Jonathan Carroll, prosecuting, said that, following tests, the child was found to have a brain injury called subdural haematoma and retinal haemorrhages, as well as bruising.

He said Ottaway had protested his innocence, and at times became aggressive towards doctors, before eventually admitting he had caused the injuries, claiming they had happened when he jumped onto his bed without thinking and landed on his son.

But he finally confessed to his mother, telling her: "I've done a terrible thing.

"I didn't mean to do it. It was me that shook (the child) because he wouldn't stop crying.

"I'm supposed to protect him and I let him down. I was so tired with working and getting the flat ready, but I know that's no excuse."

Glenn Parsons, representing Ottaway, said he had met his then partner - the baby's mother - when she was 17.

"They were two very young people who ended up having a child together and had to take on all the responsibility that came with that," he said.

"It does seem it was like a pressure cooker building over time with accommodation and jobs.

"Looking back, the defendant will say he took on far more than he could cope with. He was exhausted from working, decorating the flat and feeding and caring for his son.

"He accepts there was a momentary loss of his self-control and he shook him, and he is devastated and ashamed by what he did.

"The thought that he had caused this injury to his own son and the possibility there could be long-term injury troubles him and weighs on his conscience."

He also said Ottaway was only allowed supervised visits with his son, and he and the mother had now split up.

Subdural haematoma - a bleeding between the layers which protect the brain from the skull - is one of the most widely-recognised signs of baby-shaking and, in some cases, can be fatal.

It can also cause seizures, infected wounds, meningitis or coma and persistent vegetative state.

You recognised he was a helpless child

THOMAS Ottaway was told the demands and strains of family life were no excuse for shaking his son.

Judge Stephen Ashurst said: "No court would want to send a young father like you to custody unless it was the only appropriate punishment.

"You lost your temper with (the child) when he would not settle, and you now accept you shook him vigorously more than once. It may well be that the shaking lasted only a few minutes, but it is the considered view of medical experts that it would have been quite obvious at the time that such force was entirely inappropriate.

"I know you and your partner were young to have the responsibility of a young child, but you are not the only young couple who have had to cope with the considerable demands of young children. All parents have to learn to draw on enormous resources of patience.

"You recognised he was a helpless child and you were in a position of ultimate responsibility for him on that occasion. Young parents can feel pressure, particularly when young children are being difficult, but that, I am afraid to say, is the way of the world.

"There is quite a body of evidence that you have problems in controlling your temper. It may be that you kept quiet for so many months out of fear, because you feared the consequences for you and your partner, and no doubt for (the child).

"But the longer you kept quiet, the less accurate information medical staff had about how to treat (the child). He has continued to make a very good recovery from his injuries, but it is still very early days and doctors are unable to say whether there may be long-term consequences such as epilepsy."

How we were able to report the full facts

THE Press can reveal how Thomas Ottaway harmed his own son after succeeding in having a reporting restriction lifted.

An order banning the identification of a juvenile aged under 18 concerned in adult court proceedings had been imposed in this case.

But Judge Stephen Ashurst removed the restriction, allowing us to publish details of the relationship between Ottaway and the baby he shook, after he received a letter from Kevin Booth, the editor of The Press.

He wrote: "Given the close connection between the complainant and the defendant, this order imposes an unreasonable restriction of the reporting of this case.

"The only way to prevent the identification of the complainant is to suppress the publication of virtually all details of the case. The public would not be fully aware of the seriousness of the case and justice would not be seen to be done."

Judge Ashurst agreed, ruling there was a "legitimate public interest in fair a accurate reporting of cases".