FORMER policeman Colin David Randall has been sentenced to nine years in jail for killing his 10-week-old baby at Victoria Point in 2014.
Randall pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month – a week before his trial was to start – and was sentenced by Justice Peter Davis in the Supreme Court on Friday.
The 41-year-old man was left alone with his son Kye Braxton Randall, while his wife and daughter went shopping.
Justice Davis said Kye was in a rocker swing when Randall bent down and delivered a forceful punch to the baby’s stomach. The punch caused fatal internal injuries.
For nearly four years, until he pleaded guilty, Randall claimed he had found his son limp and lifeless in the rocker swing and the injuries were caused by attempts to resuscitate him.
Justice Davis said Randall’s action was “a willed act of violence to a defenceless infant”.
“You were his father. You were in a position where you ought to have been protecting him and nurturing him,” the judge told Randall.
Randall said in court papers that he had been frustrated at work and at being unable to transfer from Wynnum police station to Hervey Bay.
Justice Davis said a statement from a former Wynnum police woman detailed a sexual relationship between the woman and Randall about five or six months before Kye died.
Justice Davis said Randall had been in custody since early 2016 and in solitary confinement because of the danger that he would be attacked by inmates.
He accepted Randall had pleaded guilty but said it was in circumstances where manslaughter appeared to be the best result Randall could have hoped for.
Justice Davis said the guilty plea did not reflect genuine remorse as Randall had lied about Kye’s injuries for nearly four years. Mitigating circumstances were limited.
“The exact force of it [the punch] is unknown but it was certainly not a slap or a glancing blow,” Justice Davis said.
Randall was a teacher at Toowoomba before enrolling in the police academy. He will be eligible for parole in January 2021.
