Thug who dangled baby by the neck of jacket is spared jail

George Cochrane (27) continued to hold the tot aloft as the combined weight of child and buggy pressed on his little windpipe, cutting off his air supply. The 15-month-old’s face turned blue before Cochrane finally put him down.

Appearing from custody at Stirling Sheriff Court, Cochrane, Lumley Street, Grangemouth, previously pled guilty to assault and behaving in a threatening manner between December 2015 and March 28 last year.

Cochrane was annoyed at the baby’s crying and swore at him before carrying out his violent act. The incident was witnessed by two people at a house in Grangemouth.

A previous incident saw Cochrane pick the baby up from the floor by his jacket and shake him violently because he was crying.

At an earlier appearance Sheriff William Gilchrist said a custodial sentence was “almost inevitable”, but yesterday he said jailing Cochrane, who had already spent three weeks in custody on remand, would serve “no useful purpose” and instead placed him on a supervised community payback order for three years with the condition he complete 300 hours of unpaid work.

Mr Kerr said that on both occasions the little boy had been attacked, he had been crying because he was tired.

Cochrane was forced to represent himself in court after his solicitor withdrew from acting for him.