Woman who fractured baby's skull is freed by judge, saying SHE had suffered enough

Free: Claire Thompson, 32, has been handed a suspended sentence for battering infant she was looking after

A woman who battered a nine-week-old baby in an horrific attack has avoided jail after a judge decided she had already suffered enough.

Claire Thompson, 32, who had been entrusted with looking after the infant, was found guilty in March of fracturing its skull, breaking a rib and inflicting up to three leg fractures.

An expert at her trial said the skull fracture was probably caused by the baby's head hitting a hard surface with force, the rib was probably broken by severe squeezing and the the leg bones were likely to have been fractured by forceful pulling or twisting, or by violent shaking.

But yesterday Judge David Goodin spared Thompson from prison, handing her a nine-month suspended prison sentence, ordering her to do 200 hours of community service and telling her to pay £500 costs.

Hearing that she had 'lost everything' following the assault, he heaped praise on her character and told her she had already suffered more than any sentence he could impose on her.

Judge Goodin said: 'All evidence simply confirms you to be an industrious, decent and placid well-liked young woman who was slow to anger and disinclined to confrontation.'

He added: 'The only sensible explanation for these injuries must have been a sudden and momentary loss of control.'

Thompson, of Sudbury, Suffolk, was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to a baby she was looking after - but was cleared of causing the injuries intentionally.

Despite denying both charges, Thompson admitted she was one of three people who could have injured the infant.

Lindsay Cox, defending Thompson, told Ipswich Crown Court yesterday: 'She was engaged and lost that. The home that she had with a former partner was again lost to her.'

He added: 'She was working in the retail industry in a job that would bring her into contact with children. Although she has not been told that she is fired, she has not gone back to work, and I cannot in all honesty think that she could keep that appointment.'