A Co Armagh man who shook his baby son so violently that it caused “catastrophic” brain injuries was today (Thursday) told he will spend the next 20 years behind bars for the child’s murder.
Lewis Oliver Rowland sustained life-changing brain injuries in November 2015 and was left with a range of disabilities when he was just 13 weeks old.
He died aged three in October 2018 in his foster mother’s arms from complications arising from surgery to insert a feeding tube into his stomach.
His 29-year old father Craig Rowland, from Millington Park in Portadown, denied murdering his son.
He stood trial last October and at the conclusion of an often harrowing four-week trial, the jury of eight men and four women convicted him on a charge of murder.
The child killer was back in Belfast Crown Court today where the 20-year tariff imposed by Mr Justice O’Hara who revealed that despite the jury’s verdict, Rowland continues to not accept responsibility for what he did and has blamed medical staff for his son’s death.
Also sentenced today was Lewis’s mother Laura Graham, who is 32 and from Edward Street in Lurgan.
Both she and Rowland admitted a charge of wilfully neglecting their son on November 20, 2015 by failing to obtain timely medical treatment.
Whilst Graham was handed a combination order consisting of three years Probation and 100 hours community service for the child cruelty charge, Rowland had 12-month sentence imposed which will run concurrently with the 20-year tariff
Mr Justice O’Hara said that whilst it may never emerged what happened in the couple’s flat, the “overwhelming likelihood” is that at some point during the middle of the night Rowland “lost his temper with Lewis, shook him violently and caused a terrible injury which ultimately lead to his death” whilst Graham slept.
During the trial, the jury heard that on November 20, 2015 the couple brought their baby son to Craigavon Area Hospital.
When the pair arrived at the hospital at around 1.30pm, they told medics that the evening before Lewis had been unsettled and unwell.
They also said they had put Lewis in his buggy and walked three miles from their home in Portadown to the hospital, which took around an hour, and didn’t call an ambulance as they had no phone.
The gravely ill baby underwent a CT Scan that revealed he had serious brain injuries which resulted in a permanent and severe disability.
Further examinations of Lewis on that date revealed he also had a spinal injury, a healing rib fracture and multiple bruises on his neck, head and chest.
Due to the severity of his injuries, Lewis was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast that afternoon suffering from a bleed to his brain.
After eventually being released from the Royal Hospital, Lewis was taken into foster care.
He couldn’t see, walk or talk and had to be fed through a nasal tube, but he could smile at his foster parents.
In October 2018 the little boy underwent surgery in a paediatric intensive care unit to insert a feeding tube directly into his stomach.
The surgery was conducted on October 4, 2018 and he had further surgery on October 17 and 19 to re-adjust the feeding tube.
In the early hours of October 20, Lewis developed breathing difficulties and a chest X-Ray indicated he had pneumonia. He passed away later that day, at 1.30pm in his foster mother’s arms.
A number of medical professionals who gave evidence at the trial determined that Lewis’s injuries were as a result of him being shaken.
One doctor describing the brain injury which he believed was caused by shaking as “one of the “most severe” he has seen in his ten years of practice and determined it was sustained within a 24-hour period prior to Lewis being admitted to hospital on November 20, 2015.
Mr Justice O’Hara said that “in all likelihood” the injuries were sustained in the early hours of November 20 and by that morning it would have been apparent that Lewis needed medical assistance.
Pointing out the couple “walked him to the hospital rather than asking for help”, the Judge said that when they arrived, they displayed “attachment and indifference” to their son’s plight.
Whilst he accepted that both Rowland and Graham were inexperienced as parents and had “limitations”, Mr Justice O’Hara said this indifference included declining an offer to stay overnight at the Royal Victoria Hospital after Lewis had been transferred to Belfast in November 2015 and again declining to visit their son in hospital shortly before the toddler passed away three years later.
During today’s sentencing, Mr Justice O’Hara paid tribute to Lewis’s foster parents and said their willingness to care for and love the child was “truly heroic and utterly selfless.”
He also paid tribute to all the medical staff who cared for Lewis, some of whom were left traumatised.
Imposing a minimum 20 year sentence upon the child killer, the Judge said Rowland’s criminal record was an aggravating factor.
He said a “striking” feature of Rowland’s previous offending was a sexual assault inflicted on a young girl with a learning disability which he committed in May 2015 when Graham was pregnant with Lewis.
Mr Justice O’Hara told Rowland that when he had served the 20-year sentence in full, it will then be up to the Parole Commissioners whether to release him.
When released, Rowland will be subject to licence conditions for the rest of his life and will be recalled to prison if he offends again or breaches any of the terms of his licence.
Regarding Graham, Mr Justice O’Hara said he had noted submissions on her part which suggested she was coercively controlled and dominated by Rowland during their relationship.
It was accepted that whilst she could not have known what had happened to her son during the early hours, she would have been aware how ill the baby was that morning and that she should have sought immediate medical attention.
Mr Justice O’Hara said: “Even with all her limitations, she should have known and done better in November 2015.”
After she consented to the three-year Probation Order, Graham left the dock whilst Rowland was led back into custody in handcuffs by prison staff
