by Keith Hunt

A father is facing sentence after being convicted of causing his baby daughter serious injury.

James Horton left the child with a broken arm by mistreating and abusing her, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

Scarlet Horton was also found to have several older fractures to her ribs.

She was just three months old when she was taken to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford on March 30 last year.

He had been looking after Scarlet while her mother was visiting friends.

He later claimed the injury to the child's upper left arm may have been caused by her getting tangled up in the bars of her cot.

But the jury of eight men and four women was told he could not explain how she also had fractures to two of her left ribs and five of her right ribs.

Horton, of St Theresa's Close, Ashford, denied cruelty to a person under 16, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and a lesser offence of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

He was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm by an 11-1 majority and cleared of the other charges.

Prosecutor Ian Acheson said 26-year-old Horton "mistreated and abused" the baby while caring for her.

"Those stresses and tensions (of caring for a baby) can be difficult to keep a lid on and it may be that the lid came off and the desire, albeit fleetingly, to shut her up may have formed the intent at the time," he said.

Horton, who left Swadelands School in Lenham with six GCSEs, denied in evidence that he had harmed his daughter in any way.

Asked if it was true he had assaulted and mistreated Scarlet, he replied: "No, of course it isn't. I loved her."

Granting bail and adjourning sentence until after January 9, Judge David Griffith-Jones QC told Horton: "Before deciding on the appropriate sentence I need to know more about you."