Queensland policeman sentenced for killing baby son

A FORMER police officer has been slammed for a “sickening” attack that killed his 10-week-old son, before persisting with a “ridiculous” lie to protect himself.

FORMER police officer Colin David Randall has been sentenced to nine years’ jail for killing his 10-week-old son by punching him in the stomach four years ago.

He will be eligible for parole in 2021, after serving five years of the sentence.

Colin David Randall in court during the case.

The former Wynnum Police Station officer pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his son Kye in the Brisbane Supreme Court last month and was sentenced today.

The court heard Randall punched the baby in the stomach, pulping his liver, because he was “frustrated” about family illness and a failed work transfer to Hervey Bay.

For the next four years the 41-year-old lied about the child’s death saying the boy sustained the fatal injuries when Randall wrongly applied CPR after the baby inexplicably went limp and pale, the court heard.

It was the first time he had been left alone with the child at the family’s Victoria Point home.

In sentencing, Justice Peter Davis said it was “sickening” to imagine the day Randall bent down and punched the child as he lay in his rocker swing.

“He was a 10-week-old baby and totally innocent of the world,” he said.

Justice Davis said the child had no idea of life and death and that his father was about to breach his duty to nurture the child by attacking him on June 28, 2014.

“You must have known that it was enviable that the fact that you had fatally struck your infant son would be discovered, however ... you instinctively lied about how Kye had died,” Justice Davis said.

“You did not report to medical officers that you had punched your infant son, instead you persisted with the ridiculous story ... that you had found Kye limp in the rocker swing.

“You were attempting to portray (yourself) as an unsuccessful rescuer when you knew you were the perpetrator.”

A police officer charged with murdering his baby son has appeared in court for the first time. Senior Constable Colin David Randall, 38, was charged with murder

The court heard, while it was accepted Randall did not intend to cause grievous bodily harm or kill the child, he did intend to hurt him.

During the first half of the sentencing hearing the court heard Randall had been having an affair with a woman he worked with at Wynnum Station, who had links to Hervey Bay, prior to the baby’s death.

Justice Davis said while he took into consideration the 41-year-old’s plea of guilty, it was made only days before the man was expected to go to trial on murder charges.

The court heard the plea was a tactical decision “to avoid the risk of a sentence of life imprisonment”.

“Your plea of guilty is late and I do not find you genuinely remorseful, your actions since you punched Kye are representative of self-preservation,” he said.

Justice Davis did not criticise the Director of Public Prosecutions decision to downgrade the charge saying, it was a “reasonable” course of action and did not change the fact the case was “very, very strong”.

Randall has been on remand for 832 days.