Kent father found guilty of shaking his son to death

26/07/2012

A Maidstone man has been found guilty of killing his baby son by shaking him.

Mackenzie Acott was just four months old when the incident happened in January 2011. His mother returned to the family home in Square Hill Road to find her son unresponsive and his head flopped back. Mackenzie was taken to hospital and transferred later that night to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Kings College Hospital, where he died a week later.
Wayne Acott had denied manslaughter at his trial at Maidstone Crown Court, but the jury heard evidence that the post mortem examination showed Mackenzie had not suffered from any underlying natural disease or developmental abnormality which could have caused or contributed to his death. Medical experts who carried out the post mortem agreed that his death was due to a head injury.
Prosecutor Ken Goss from the CPS South East Complex Casework Unit said: "No-one will ever know what happened on that fateful day. What we do know is that Mackenzie suffered a sudden and catastrophic collapse caused by trauma to his head, which ultimately led to his tragic death."