Bo'ness baby batterer appeals his conviction

Scott Innes (31) was given a three year sentence for assaulting the premature baby while her mother attended the bingo in Bo’ness back in May 2017.

At the time Stirling Sheriff Court heard how Innes phoned the child’s mother to say she had “fallen off the sofa” onto a laminate floor.

The court heard that even though, at only two days past what would have been her full-term delivery date, the child was not independently-mobile.

Innes then sent a photo showing bruising right across the baby’s forehead, down to her ear, and starting to spread down her whole face.

Her mother and grandmother rushed home and the child was taken to the Forth Valley Royal Hospital where she was found to have subdural bruising on the brain and a sub-conjunctival haematoma to her right eye.

It later emerged she also had three fractured ribs and “extensive intercranial injuries”.

Today, defence advocate David Moggach told the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh that Innes was wrongly convicted.

He said prosecutors had not proven their case against Innes and that another person could have been responsible for injuring the child.

Mr Moggach also said jurors may not have properly considered a submission he made at Innes’s trial that another person could have committed the crime.

He added: “The Crown have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Mr Innes who inflicted the injuries on the child. It is my submission the jury may not have given careful consideration to my submission the injuries were not caused by Mr Innes but by somebody else.

“Mr Innes does not accept he is responsible for these non accidental injuries.”

Mr Moggach was addressing judges Lady Dorrian, Lord Glennie and Lord Turnbull in a bid to overturn his client’s conviction.

Innes denied any wrongdoing during his July 2019 trial.

But after six days, a jury of seven men and eight women found him guilty of assaulting the baby to her severe injury and permanent impairment and inflicting blunt-force trauma on her “by means to the prosecutor unknown”.

The court heard how she subsequently developed “structural changes” to her brain, with increased internal pressure causing her head to increase in size.

Now, more than two years after the incident, the child still has a “shunt” in her head to reduce this pressure.

The jurors heard, while Innes had been the only person with the child on the evening of the incident, May 30th, 2017, and there was no direct evidence of how he had inflicted her injuries, the medical evidence was “overwhelmingly clear” they were non-accidental.

Today prosecution lawyer Alex Prentice QC told appeal judges Innes was not the victim of a miscarriage of justice and the conviction should be upheld.

Mr Prentice added: “There was simply no evidence of anybody else being involved in inflicting these injuries. It is my submission this appeal is refused.”

Lady Dorrian said the court would issue their decision on the appeal sometime in the near future.

She added: “We will take time to consider our decision in this case and we will issue our judgement in writing.”