Vishar Jain was jailed for nine years at Birmingham crown court (Picture: PA)

A man fractured a four-year-old boy’s skull by repeatedly kicking and punching him after the child interrupted an episode of Doctor Who by sighing.

Vishar Jain, 44, was jailed for nine years for the horrific attack which left the child in intensive care fighting for his life and psychologically scarred.

He began kicking and throwing punches as he sat on a sofa with the child’s mother and the young boy.

The boy also suffered a fractured collarbone, cuts to his mouth and several bruises during the frenzied attack. He later spent two weeks in hospital recovering from his injuries.




The child’s mother said she remembered a ‘banging’ noise after her son fell on the ground and feared he was dead following the attack.

Jain also lashed out at her when she tried to intervene to stop the abuse, suffering cuts and bruises to her face.

Following the attack, the child was so traumatised he suffered nightmares and would lapse into zombie-like trances, Birmingham crown court heard.

Jain, a computer engineer, who had been in a relationship with the boy’s mother for two years, has never provided an explanation for the attack.

Matt Smith playing Doctor Who: The attack happened after the young boy sighed during an episode (Picture: BBC)

Judge Philip Parker QC said before the attack it had been an ordinary afternoon and the three of them had sat together watching an episode of Doctor Who.

He told Jain: ‘You became irritated by his behaviour when he was sitting between you and his mother.

‘You chastised him and then what followed was a quite unexplained outburst of uncontrollable violence which was your reaction to no more than the child simply sighing.’

Prosecutor Claire Harris said that on March 23 the boy uttered something that Jain interpreted as interrupting the adults’ conversation.

Gerard Cullen, defending, said: ‘This was not a case where there was any premeditation at all. This defendant simply snapped.’

The court heard there was a ‘significant risk’ Jain, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, would behave in a totally unjustified and irrational way again.

Jain admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent and common assault at an earlier hearing.

Following the case, Detective Constable Hayley Bubb, from Birmingham’s Child Protection team, said: ‘This was an unprovoked and sustained attack on a defenceless child, which he has never explained.’