Last updated at 18:02 30 January 2008

A man obsessed with video games killed his 17-month-old daughter when she knocked over his Xbox console after a six-hour playing session.

Enraged Tyrone Spellman pummelled Alayiah Turman to death, cracking her skull several times, while her pregnant mother slept in another room.

American Spellman, 27, who had been playing the game "Ghost Recon" told detectives: "The only reason I snapped 'cause I thought she broke my brother's $600 Xbox and I don't have any money to pay him back."

And prosecutor James Berardinelli said the sickening attack was carried out "with a wickedness of disposition, a hardness of heart and extreme indifference" to the impact such a battering would have.

"That little baby's head cracked like a walnut," he added.

But Spellman's defence lawyers told a court in Philadephia that he only confessed to protect the mother, Mia Turman, from becoming a suspect.

But jurors rejected this claim and yesterday convicted him of third-degree murder and child endangerment.

He now faces up to 47 years in prison.

Spellman, also known as Anwar Salahuddin, was arrested in September 2006 after an autopsy indicated that the toddler's skull had been shattered by blows to the head.

Throughout the trial, defense attorney Bobby Hoof maintained that his client was innocent and tried to cast suspicion on Miss Turman, who had a history of neglecting the child.

Spellman fled the house after the beating, and the mother, Miss Turman, had no reason to go in the bedroom where the baby was found, prosecutors said.

"He (Spellman) spent six to seven hours a day in there playing Xbox," Assistant District Attorney James Berardinelli said.

Spellman,of Philadelphia, confessed to police the next day, but defense lawyer Bobby Hoof noted that his statement came after 24 hours in custody.

An autopsy showed that Alayiah had suffered a broken arm about two weeks before she died - an injury that city social workers did not see on two visits to the house in late August, when they found the baby well.

The city took custody of the couple's second daughter, born after Alayiah's death.