Man gets life in prison for beating infant to death on Christmas Day, after flying into drunken rage over ‘teething baby’

A man who killed his 6-month-old daughter in a drunken rage on Christmas Day last year was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday

BBC reports that Lee Parker, 33, drank several bottles of wine, a bottle of vodka, and took cocaine and marijuana before he flew into an inebriated fury and slammed his infant’s head against a bathroom wall. The baby, identified as Aya Parker, had numerous skulls fractured. Paramedics tried to save her, but the injuries were too severe. When medical help arrived, Ava was bleeding from her eyes, ears, and nose.

While appearing at the Bristol Crown Court in England, Parker listened as Justice Phillips reminded him of what his “violent anger” caused.

“Injuries like that are rarely seen in children as young as Aya. This wasn’t premeditated, but a rage. Her injuries show you intended to kill her, influenced by drink and drugs….The only explanation for the extreme and violent attack is that you had lost your temper having drunk heavily and had taken cocaine and cannabis.”

Parker was supposed to be taking care of Aya when the incident occurred, while her mother, Zofia Kucharczyk, was out to dinner with her new boyfriend.  Although Parker and Kucharczyk had a platonic relationship, they lived with their daughter in a shared apartment in Kingswood, Bristol, so they could raise her together.

The evening seemed to start out normally, with Parker snapping of pic of his teething baby. It’s still unclear what transpired over the next several hours that made Parker so angry that he killed the baby he supposedly loved. Aside from saying he was drunk and high, he never gave any other explanations about what led up to him losing his temper.

“A man affected by drink and drugs may not have been well placed emotionally, perhaps physically, to deal with the tantrums, if tantrums they were, of a six-month-old baby,” prosecutor Richard Smith said.

“This was a baby who was teething at the time,” Smith continued. “That level of intoxication may make one less patient, less tolerant, less able to control one’s temper.”

Parker must spend at least 15 and a half years in prison before he’s eligible for parole.

[Photo: Family Handout]