Liam Whoriskey jailed for 15 years for manslaughter of Kayden McGuinness

Liam Whoriskey will serve half of his sentence in custody and the remaining half on licence.

Whoriskey, of Glenabbey Gardens, was convicted of the manslaughter of Kayden McGuinness in September 2017.

He was also founding guilty of child cruelty relating to an incident the previous month in which Kayden sustained bruising to the bridge of his nose and eyes.

Three-year-old Kayden was found dead in his Columcille Court home after being left in the sole care of Whoriskey overnight.

The child sustained 'extensive' bruising to his face and at least 15 bruises to his scalp.

The blows to the child's head caused swelling and bleeding of the brain and medical evidence suggested death was unlikely to have been immediate.

Passing sentence, Judge Philip Babington said there are 'few worse crimes than causing the death of a child'.

"It is clear that it is an exceptional case of the utmost seriousness. The jury came to the conclusion that the defendant did something - only the defendant knows what - that caused the death of Kayden and the defendant then left him to die.

"He only summoned help when he himself woke up many hours later. The defendant was left to look after Kayden but for reasons that are still not clear caused his death," he said.