Man sentenced for dropping baby out of window
A 21-year-old man who ran off after a baby fell from his arms out of a second-floor window, fracturing the infant's skull, has been sentenced to 15 months in jail and 15 months on licence.
Timuras Kozlov of Derrychara Drive, Enniskillen, has been in custody since the incident on May 16 last year involving baby six-month-old Rokas Jomantas, and should be free to return to his native Lithuania within the next three months.
He had been accused of attempting to murder the infant he had been left in charge of, but this charge was withdrawn when he admitted unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Dungannon Crown Court had heard Kozlov had never held a baby before.
Reading from a set of agreed facts, a prosecutor said Kozlov was standing by the opened window nursing him, but was “distracted” by the youngster’s sibling. As he turned baby Rokas “fell from his arms out of the window”.
The child fell about 23 feet. Judge Stephen Fowler told Kozlov it was “patently obvious” that standing by an open window with a child in his arms, while drunk, could lead to injury.
However, Judge Fowler said “fortunately baby Rokas did not suffer life-changing or catastrophic injuries”.
Judge Fowler said in mitigation there was his guilty plea, youth, clear record and inexperience in relation to babies.
In early defence submissions, counsel Desmond Fahy said Kozlov “never harboured any intention to harm the baby”.