Caged for life

BORDERING on the sadistic . . . Gary Alcock

Savage beast killed tot for crying while he played computer games
A SAVAGE brute who battered his girlfriend's baby to death when the tot’s crying interrupted him playing on his X-Box has been jailed for life.

Gary Alcock (28) punched and and slapped 15-month-old Violet Mullen in the three weeks leading up to her death before delivering a fatal blow to her tiny stomach — tearing her internal organs.

Alcock must serve a minimum of 21 years before he can be considered for parole.

Violet’s mum Claire Flanagan (22) was sentenced to five years for causing or allowing the tot’s death.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC told Alcock: “In the three weeks before her death you subjected Violet to repeated violence. You fractured two of her ribs either by squeezing or gripping her so tight that they snapped.

“You caused injuries to her brain, face, arms and legs with a combination of punches, slaps and, bordering on the sadistic, pinches.

“This was the way you chose to cope with a little girl who demanded your attention and interrupted your time-consuming hobby of playing computer games."

Alcock put Violet to bed on the day of her death, said the judge, "no doubt in the hope that you would have some time free to indulge your desire to play on your X–Box.”

He continued: "Violet was sick, she required changing, she required your time and patience.

"You lost control and your temper in the most unimaginable way.

Flanagan invited Alcock to move in with her and Violet in Huddersfield Road, Waterhead, just two days after meeting him because she wanted revenge on her old boyfriend for being dumped.

Three weeks later, on January 12, Violet was admitted to the Royal Oldham Hospital with multiple injuries similar to those of a high-speed car crash. She was pronounced dead soon after.

Flanagan told police she had gone out leaving Violet at home with Alcock. When she returned, Alcock said the tot had been sick.

When he checked on her she seemed “spaced out” with cold, blue lips.

Doctors discovered Violet had 39 separate injuries, 16 of which were on her head, face and neck.

She was forcefully punched or stamped on in the abdomen up to an hour before her death.

Violet had endured two fractured ribs in an incident three weeks before her death and had suffered injuries akin to a TV being dropped on her chest.

Judge Goldstone added: “You are a manipulative and possessive individual who has used to violence within relationships in order to achieve control.

“You claim to have loved Violet but you did not love her. You don’t know the true meaning of the word love.

“Yours was a truly horrific and cruel crime of murder for which you have shown absolutely no remorse whatsoever.”

Addressing Flanagan, the judge added: “You were an easy touch and desperate to be in a relationship. You put your own personal needs ahead of your child by allowing Gary Alcock to adopt a role as a father figure and significantly and tragically assume responsibility for discipline.

“How could a mother behave like this? The answer was simple, you had a relationship with a man and nothing — not the need to protect your daughter from his violence — was going to stand in the way of it.

“You wanted the joy of being a mother but none of the responsibility.”

Investigations revealed that Flanagan began affairs with a string of men she met on internet dating sites.

She began simultaneous relationships with Christopher Mullen, who thought he was Violet’s dad following a five year on/off fling, and Paul Taylor, who discovered he was Violet’s father after a DNA test.

Mr Mullen eventually split with Flanagan in late 2009, soon after which she began a fling with Alcock who had previous convictions for violence upon an ex-girlfriend.

Within just two days of chatting on Facebook she invited him to move in with her and Violet.

Neighbours testified that they would often hear “shouting, yelling and screaming” from the house three or four times a week.