A FATHER has today been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal killing of his baby son.Matthew Ansell, 40, murdered his four-and-a-half-month-old son, Harry, by swinging him by his legs into a hard surface, leaving him with severe head injuries and three fractured bones in his legs.

By Sharon Asplin

A FATHER has today been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal killing of his baby son.

Matthew Ansell, 40, murdered his four-and-a-half-month-old son, Harry, by swinging him by his legs into a hard surface, leaving him with severe head injuries and three fractured bones in his legs.

Ansell had denied the attack at their home - the Nebruka boat moored at Tollesbury Marina - saying Harry had “flipped”out of his arms as he fed him.

But last month a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court convicted him of the murder and today Christopher Ball QC sentenced him to life, ordering that he serve a minimum term of 15 years before being eligible for parole.