AN EVIL stepfather who shook his baby son to death and then tried to cover it up with a sick lie about a Hobnob biscuit has been found guilty of murder.
Christopher Stockton claimed one-year-old Charlie Roberts had choked on an oat biscuit after brutally shaking him to death.
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Stockton, 38, shook the tot with such force that his brain moved within his skull causing catastrophic damage.
A distressing five-week trial at Teesside Crown Court heard how Charlie had been subjected to months of abuse before his death from his stepfather and mother Paula Roberts.
Stockton was today found guilty of murder and child neglect.
Mum-of-five Roberts, 41, admitted a single charge of neglect midway through the case.
The pair will be sentenced in the new year.
On January 12, paramedics were called to Roberts’ home in Darlington, Co Durham, after Stockton claimed the toddler had choked on a biscuit while crawling through a play tunnel.
In the 999 call, Stockton was heard placidly telling the near-lifeless tot: “Come on, Charlie. Come on, wakey, wakey.”
The emergency call was so “incredibly calm” that a senior medic thought it was “false alarm”, jurors were told.
Medics called to the address in Frosterley Drive found nothing blocking the youngster’s airway and tests later revealed Charlie had suffered an “unsurvivable” brain injury.
Mr Lumley, prosecuting, said: “Christopher Stockton was alone in the house with Charlie.
“In a very short time – for that is all it takes to lose one’s temper – he must have assaulted Charlie by shaking or throwing him with considerable force.
“What happened to Charlie once his mother had closed the door on him was no accident. Much as it may have been quickly and bitterly regretted, it was no accident.”
He added: “The force to cause those devastating injuries would have caused Charlie to collapse almost immediately.
“He could not have been walking and talking afterwards for more than a few moments, if at all.”
Charlie died at Newcastle hospital on January 13 after attempts to save his life were unsuccessful.
Prosecutors said Charlie had been subjected to “cruel and uncaring” injuries in the seven months before his death.
Roberts, who was at an eye appointment when Charlie was allegedly fatally attacked, eventually admitted cruelly neglecting her son.
His nursery and family members reported noticing bruises in the weeks and months before his death.
Ken Greenwell, Charlie’s paternal grandad, told how the youngster appeared hungry on weekly visits to their home, with “pitifully thin” arms and legs.
He told jurors: “There was no muscle development. Not what you would expert to see on a child that age.
“Where they stand on the couch and pull themselves up, he struggled to do that.
“When we first started getting him, he couldn’t really sit up properly. We would have to put cushions behind him on the couch.
“He wasn’t a greedy child. He didn’t rush his food or gobble it down, but you couldn’t fill him up.”
Jurors were told how Roberts installed a spy camera above his cot in September last year after her relationship with Stockton “became rocky”.
She disguised the Amazon-bought indoor camera in a hanging basket after telling her brother she was “concerned” about Stockton.
Stockton was remanded into custody to await his sentence and told he will be jailed for life.
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