Kettering parents jailed for 'sickening' baby abuse Published duration 7 December 2016

image copyright Northamptonshire Police image caption Katherine Prigmore and Rocky Uzzell have been jailed after their baby daughter suffered "catastrophic" injuries

A couple who inflicted such "sickening" injuries on their five-week-old daughter that she will never be able to walk or talk have been jailed.

Rocky Uzzell, 29, and Katherine Prigmore, 24, pleaded guilty last year to causing or allowing a child to suffer serious physical harm.

Their child Isabelle is also now blind and has to be fed through a tube, Northampton Crown Court heard.

Uzzell was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years and Prigmore to 28 months.

He also admitted four counts of making indecent images and received six months for each of the four charges to run concurrently.

'Nando's visit'

The pair's daughter, who is now nearly three years old, had to be resuscitated after sustaining "catastrophic" injuries at her Kettering home in 2014.

As a result of the abuse, she also suffers from epilepsy, has severe learning difficulties and is not expected to live beyond early adulthood.

The court was told the couple, of Sheila Place, Kettering, showed a clear lack of concern for their daughter in hospital and said at one point it would give them chance to go to Nando's.

image caption Judge Rupert Mayo said at Northampton Crown Court that Uzzell was "dangerous"

Three videos found on a phone showed Uzzell forcefully winding the distressed baby while Prigmore could be heard laughing as she filmed it.

Another showed Uzzell's hands on the baby's throat while the girl was sick.

During sentencing, Judge Rupert Mayo called Uzzell "dangerous" and said Prigmore's "priority should have been Isabelle".

Det Con Spencer Bailey, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said the pair inflicted "horrific injuries on this vulnerable baby" who needed "a level of medical support for the rest of her life".

"These two defendants displayed quite sickening behaviour."

'Significant bleeds'

Isabelle was admitted to Kettering General Hospital on 20 March 2014 where she had been admitted four times before.

Tests after she had been transferred to a hospital in Leicester revealed she had suffered two "significant" bleeds on the brain and one down her spinal column.

Medical reports heard in court indicated that she had been shaken leading to non-reversible injuries, had rib fractures caused by squeezing and fractured limbs as a result of being yanked.

Police said Isabelle is now in the process of being adopted outside the county.