Man jailed after attack left baby with brain injury

A man who left a one-year-old girl with a brain injury and later insisted childcare “was not his style” has been jailed for two years.

Vladimir Silivanovs attacked the child twice while supposedly looking after her at a flat in Glasgow’s Maryhill in 2017.

The 21-year-old violently shook the youngster having earlier pushed the victim because she crawled away while he was changing her.

The girl’s injuries included a bleed on the brain and fractures to her arm.

Silvianovs was later held by police during a probe.

Prosecutor Mark Allan told Glasgow Sheriff Court last month: “He told the officers he didn’t have a talent for childcare, looking after kids was not what he wanted to do and it wasn’t his style.”

Returning for sentencing on Wednesday, the first offender from Latvia was jailed for 24 months after admitting assaulting the child to her severe injury.

Sheriff Ian Fleming said: “You pled guilty to assaulting not once but twice an infant that was a year-old in your care.

“It is difficult to conceive your actions and having committed the assaults you were less than candid.”

Sheriff Fleming also imposed a five-year non-harassment order on Silivanovs against the girl.

The attacks occurred on October 12 and November 3, 2017.

The first incident happened while the girl’s mum was at work.

The baby was found the next day with “redness and swelling” to her arm.

Silivanovs claimed he had “grabbed” her to stop the child falling from a bed.

He was with the youngster a few weeks later when this time he insisted she had “fainted”.

Mr Allan said: “He said he had held her and she was struggling with him in his arms.

“As part of the struggle, he held her tightly, and as he did so, the baby fell forwards before coming round again.”

The child’s distressed mum discovered her daughter to be “pale and limp”.

Mr Allan said medics later found the child to have “bleeding and associated swelling” on the brain.