Paedophile who targeted mum on Tinder so he could rape her newborn baby jailed for life

A paedophile who targeted a vulnerable new mum on Tinder so he could rape her 10-week-old baby has been jailed for life.

Depraved Christopher Phillips, 34, was ‘actively looking for a baby’ when he joined the dating app.

He preyed on the woman after seeing a photo of her holding the infant, Swansea Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Caroline Rees KC said Phillips ‘pestered and pestered’ the woman to leave the child alone with him and ‘demanded’ he be allowed to change him unsupervised.

The infant was rushed to hospital in January 2021 with a catalogue of appalling injuries likened to being ‘hit by a bus’.

In addition to severe injuries to his anus and genitals, the boy suffered multiple fractures and a bleed on the brain at Phillips’ hands.

Medics found the baby had a fractured ankle and wrist, six fractured ribs, and a fractured skull.

Judge Paul Thomas KC told him he had inflicted them on the ‘utterly defenceless baby’ so he could ‘satisfy your grotesque sexual perversion’.

He added: ‘In my over forty years of experience, this has been the most distressing case I have ever had to deal with.

‘This has truly shaken me to my core.’

Phillips was found guilty of two offences of sexual assault by penetration against the infant, actual bodily and two offences of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

He was cleared of two offences of causing GBH with intent and of two alternative offences of inflicting GBH.

The baby’s mother was found not guilty on both counts of allowing her child to suffer serious physical harm and child neglect that she faced.

Phillips was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years but warned he may never be released.

In a statement, the child’s grandmother said of the case: ‘It brought absolute horror and devastation to the family.’

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