Monster tried to drown newborn baby in nappy bowl and threatened to kill mum

A monster horrifically tried to drown a newborn baby in a bowl of nappy-changing water and had even threatened to kill the boy and his mother.

Jay Dixon, 23, was warned that he now faces an inevitable and extended jail sentence for assaulting the baby, who was just a few days old, when he was 20 years old. A heard that the baby's mother had fallen asleep after putting her son in a Moses basket while Dixon was watching TV in the same room in , , but she was terrifyingly awoken when she heard her baby "screaming".

The mum said she saw Dixon holding the baby at arms length in front of him and the infant's face and top half of his baby grow were soaking, according to the . Dixon said: "I put his head in the bowl of water and tried to drown him, but I stopped myself." The court then heard the then 20-year-old started punching the walls, doors and threatened to kill the mum and the baby after she said she would leave with the infant.

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Prosecutor Brian Bell told the High Court in Stirling: "He later apologised to her for what he'd done, but never explained why." The court was also told about several other "terrifying" incidents between Dixon and the baby.

The then 20-year-old reportedly tried to get the baby to stop crying by putting his hands on the infant's chest as the child lay on a bed, pushing down with force so the baby could not get his cries out. The court was also told Dixon another time had picked the baby up with his hands round his neck, when he was unable to calm the infant down.

Mr Bell said: "He was compressing the baby's neck, then began to shake him back and forth while holding his neck. The baby began gurgling from the way he was being shaken and held. He held the baby by the neck and shook him. The mother was screaming for him to stop – the baby's face was turning red. His breathing was being restricted."

Standing upright, Dixon then threw the baby back on the bed. Mr Bell said the baby landed on his back on the duvet, screaming, adding: "He was still breathing." Once again the mother said she was leaving, and Dixon threatened to kill her and the baby if she tried. The infant was taken into care when he was less than a month old, after a family nurse called to find both Dixon and the mother "very agitated".

He was taken to Ninewells , Dundee where a paediatrician found "significant bruises" including on his forehead, cheek, scalp, chest wall, elbow and behind his right shoulder.

Dixon said he'd placed the baby in a washing basket on a table while the mother was asleep, and he'd fallen out of it onto the floor. On another occasion he threw the baby so high in the air his head hit the ceiling. He also dangled him upside down by his legs.

A medical report said Dixon's behaviour had been life-threatening to the baby – the chest compressions could have damaged his fragile bones, organs and tissues; the forced shaking could have led to "shaken baby syndrome"; compressing the baby's neck could have caused immediate respiratory arrest; and Dixon could have drowned the baby in only a few inches of water.

Dixon, unemployed, admitted assaulting the baby to the danger of life. He had originally been accused of attempted , but the Crown accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge. He also admitted ill-treating the baby and exposing him to danger.

The incidents took place from shortly after the baby's birth in November 2023 to December 11, 2023 when the infant was taken into hospital. The child was discharged into kinship care on December 13, 2023 and has not suffered any lasting ill-effects.

Dixon further admitted a course of abuse perpetrated towards a woman, then 18, at various locations in Dundee in 2021. He admitted shouting at her and calling her a rat, controlling her appearance, whereabouts and with whom she had contact.

While on bail for that offending, he carried out another year-long campaign of abuse towards another woman, the baby's mother. He was arrested on March 16, 2023, after a drunken incident at a Travelodge in Perth when he slapped her, pushed her, punched her, and threw her inhaler and her phone across a bedroom.

Hotel staff came to see what was happening and the woman, by then six weeks , fled the room, only to the punched in the face by Dixon as she sat in reception. In December 2023 he was remanded in custody at Dundee Sheriff Court in respect of the assaults on the baby, and has been in custody ever since.

Judge Jane Farquharson warned him he faced a jail sentence, plus an extended period of supervision on his eventual release. Deferring sentence until May 30 at the High Court in Livingston, she warned: "These are extremely serious charges." Gillian Ross KC, defending, reserved mitigation. She said Dixon was aware a prison sentence was "inevitable".