Dad guilty of murdering newborn son after trying to blame distraught partner

A postman who tried to blame his distraught partner for killing their newborn son after shaking him to death in a drunken rage has been found guilty of murder.

Tony Bartlett, 39, had nine pints of Stella before attacking little Atticus Bartlett at the family home in Chard, Somerset, late on July 16, 2022.

He had not long arrived home with partner Evelyn Ballentyne from their first night out since their son’s birth, Bristol Crown Court was told during his trial.

Jurors heard Bartlett ‘was left to look after and feed Atticus for just a few moments while Evelyn went upstairs to change and get ready for bed’.

‘In those few moments, Tony Bartlett violently shook his child so hard that he caused severe internal injuries to Atticus’s brain and he damaged his spinal cord,’ prosecutor Charles Row KC said.

‘In doing so, he must have squeezed his child so hard that he cracked several ribs.’

Ms Ballentyne wept in the witness box as she described coming downstairs to find their son floppy and grey in color.

‘I don’t know if I said, “he’s dead” or “he’s not breathing”,’ she said. ‘I just screamed and ran out of the house.’

neighbors and paramedics rushed into the home before Atticus was rushed to hospital.

But there was nothing that could be done. He never managed to breathe for himself again or regain consciousness and he died shortly before midnight on July 23, 2022.

Bartlett told jurors he ‘didn’t do it’ and instead pointed the finger of blame at Ms Ballentyne, claiming she caused the fatal injuries to their son while trying to revive him.

His barrister, Nigel Power KC, said she had described having shaken Atticus on four previous occasions. In her evidence, Ms Ballentyne told jurors this was not the case.

Mr Power said the ‘last gasps’ she claimed to have heard when she came downstairs may have simply been the infant choking on his milk.

‘This allows for the real possibility that the shaking that caused the injuries happened in Evelyn’s hands, not Tony’s,’ he added.

Cross-examining Ms Ballentyne, he said: ‘Tony didn’t do anything to harm Atticus, did he?’

Ms Ballentyne replied: ‘Yes he did.’

The jury agreed, unanimously finding Bartlett, of Axminster, Devon, guilty of murder today.

Mr Justice Cavanagh remanded him into custody to be sentenced on July 24.

The judge said: ‘There is only one sentence for murder, which is a life sentence.

‘I have to fix a minimum sentence before the defendant can be considered for release.’

Members of Atticus’s family gasped and wept in the public gallery of courtroom two after the verdict was read out.

Bartlett, appearing by videolink from the dock at Bristol Magistrates’ Court, sobbed loudly.

The judge thanked jurors for the ‘care and attention’ they had given the case, adding that they had served ‘magnificently’.

‘It is clear that you have given this very important case the detailed consideration that it deserves,’ he added. He released them from jury service for the next five years.

Mr Row had told them Bartlett killed his son in a moment of ‘pure violence’.

He said the attack may have been ‘over in seconds’.

Atticus was killed ‘because this defendant, drunk and frustrated, tragically used unlawful and significant force against his own son’, the prosecutor said.

‘The loss of temper and frustration may have been brief. It was almost certainly fuelled by those eight and a half pints of Stella.

‘Mr Bartlett shook his infant son with force sufficient to kill him. This wasn’t an accident – it wasn’t a slip, it wasn’t rough handling.

‘It was deliberate application of force to a child who could not defend himself. The fact Mr Bartlett was drunk is no excuse.’

Jurors had heard Atticus was a ‘difficult and messy feeder’ with a tendency to spit out his milk.

That evening, he had been ‘grizzly and crying’ on and off.

Mr Row said: ‘Whatever happened, Tony Bartlett could not and did not tolerate it.

‘It is the Crown’s case that, in that moment, Tony Bartlett shook Atticus so hard that he must have intended to cause him really serious bodily harm.

‘If you shake a four-week-old baby with so much force that you break ribs and destroy his brain, what other intention is there?’

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