A 29-year old Portadown man was handed a life sentence today after he was found guilty by a jury of murdering his son.
After deliberating for over six hours, the jury at Belfast Crown Court convicted Craig Rowland of murdering his son Lewis Oliver Rowland, who died aged three in October 2018.
The youngster sustained life-changing brain injuries in November 2015 after being violently shaken by his father when he was aged 13 weeks old.
Rowland displayed no emotion as he stood in the dock of Belfast Crown Court when the guilty verdict – by a majority of 11 to one – was delivered.
The convicted child killer was then addressed by Mr Justice O’Hara, who told him: “The jury has found you guilty of the murder of Lewis in October 2018.
“As a result of the fact that you have been found guilty of murder, I must pass a sentence of Life Imprisonment on you.
“There will be a hearing as soon as possible as to what the minimum time you will spend in prison is before you are considered for release by the Parole Commissioners.
“I sentence you now to Life Imprisonment.”
After this, Rowland nodded at the Judge, who then thanked the jury their attention and service.
Saying “this has not been an easy case to hear” as it involved “the killing of an infant”, Mr Justice O’Hara told them that information would be provided to them if they required help or support.
He added: “Now your role in this case is over. Thank you very much again for your contribution and your dedication to this case. You are now free to go.”
As the eight men and four women of the jury were making their way from the court, Rowland shouted “the verdict is a f*****g joke.”
This prompted Mr Justice O’Hara to tell defence barrister Seamus McNeill to “have a word with your client.”
Pre-sentence reports will now be compiled on Rowland and the Judge set the date for the Tariff hearing as Tuesday December 17.
In a trial that spanned over a period of four weeks, the jury heard that on November 20, 2015, Craig Rowland and Laura Graham (31) brought their 13-week old son Lewis to Craigavon Area Hospital.
When the pair arrived at the hospital at around 1.30pm on November 20, medics were told that the evening before, their son had been unsettled and unwell.
They also said they had put Lewis in his buggy and walked three miles from their home at Millington Park 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.
The jury heard evidence from a nurse who was on duty in the Intensive Care Unit and who recalled Lewis being taken into theatre at around 9pm.
She was asked by Crown barrister David Russell KC about a conversation she had with the baby’s parents regarding their baby son and concerns he might not survive the night.
The nurse said she told Rowland and Graham that a room in the hospital has been prepared for them to stay overnight, but that they declined this offer and said they were going home.
The jury also heard that after being released from the Royal Hospital, Lewis was taken into foster care. He couldn’t walk or talk and had to be fed through a nasal tube, but he could smile at his foster parents.
In July 2018, consideration was given regarding a longer-term feeding tube and 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, aged three.
It was the Crown’s case that the “non-accidental” and “catastrophic” brain injuries suffered by Lewis in November 2015 – which a number of medical professionals determined were as a result of the baby being shaken – played a significant role in his death.
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.
The medical professional also revealed that the brain injury was akin to having been sustained in a road traffic accident or a fall from “an enormous height.”
When he gave evidence last week, Rowland admitted telling lies “here and there” to police in the aftermath of his son’s death – but denied injuring his son.
From the witness box, Rowland accepted his son had sustained injuries but denied he was the one responsible.
In addition to this, on several occasions during the trial he held a tablet up to the media outside the court which displayed messages protesting his innocence.
In these messages, Rowland said he was “here to prove myself innocent after eight+ years of being blamed for causing harm to my son”.
Another message said “let me do a lie detector and I’ll prove you all wrong.”
Rowland and Graham admitted a charge of wilfully neglecting their son by failing to obtain timely medical treatment, while Rowland was subsequently charged with murdering his son.
Following the jury’s guilty verdict on the murder charge and after the Life Sentence was imposed, Rowland was handcuffed by prison staff.
As he was being removed from the dock and led into custody, he again shouted and said “you are all corrupt, there was no evidence.”
