This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

A soldier who killed his 20-month-old daughter after surviving a rogue attack in Afghanistan has been jailed for six years.

Lance Corporal Liam Culverhouse admitted at an earlier hearing causing the death of Khloe Abrams.

The Grenadier Guardsman was medically discharged from the army after losing his right eye in a shooting incident at an Afghan police checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand province in November 2009. Five of his comrades were killed in the attack.

Eighteen months after returning home, Culverhouse assaulted Khloe at the family home in Northampton, resulting in the toddler suffering severe brain damage and fractures to her skull, ribs and limbs.

The toddler, who was just seven weeks old, was admitted to Northampton General hospital on 8 May 2011.

Despite receiving medical treatment, she never recovered and died at the Rainbow children's hospice in Loughborough 18 months later on 7 November 2012.

Sentencing Culverhouse on Friday at Northampton crown court, the judge, Mr Justice Baker, said it was clear he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following his ordeal but that did not diminish the fact he had caused the death of his daughter.

Jailing the 25-year-old for six years, Baker said: "No one who has understood what happened to you in November 2009 whilst serving as a member of the British army in Afghanistan can have anything but profound sympathy for the effect which it had upon you.

"Not only will you have to live with the physical symptoms including blindness in your right eye, but it is clear that the trauma of that and of witnessing the death of a number of your fellow soldiers has caused you to suffer from significant psychological damage, including post-traumatic stress disorder".

But the judge added: "As I have said, I accept that the effects of your mental condition contributed to your treatment of your daughter. However, you acknowledged to police and others that prior to your experiences in Afghanistan you had always had a temper which manifested itself in other circumstances."

Culverhouse, of Kingsthorpe, Northampton, stared straight ahead during the two-and-a-half-hour hearing but closed his eyes as the judge read out his sentence.

The court heard he was transferred to a military rehabilitation unit after being treated in hospital for his injuries sustained in Afghanistan.

Prosecuting, Sally Howes QC said: "It became clear that the defendant was suffering from psychiatric and psychological damage, in particular post-traumatic stress disorder."

She told the court Culverhouse was "hyper-vigilant, over-reactive to minor things, irritable, angry and aggressive". He also had "poor control" of his temper and aggression.

Culverhouse told military doctors he would get angry before the incident but that following the ordeal he would "fly off the handle at the slightest thing".

But the court heard he stopped attending medical treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, which was provided by the army following his experience in Afghanistan.