Colin David Randall was having affairs with two women while his wife was pregnant and later as she cared for their newborn, even as she struggled with post-natal depression.On June 28, 2014, Debra left baby Kye home with Randall for the first time while she and their daughter went to the shops.An hour later, he called and told her to come home, saying Kye was “limp and lifeless … he is not breathing”.
Bizarrely, Randall had not called an ambulance. Debra told him to hang up and call Triple-0, which he did. An operator instructed him to perform CPR.When Debra arrived home, Randall was lying on his stomach in the hallway with his arms outstretched, saying “oh shit, oh shit”.Kye was on the floor in front of her husband, on his back.Paramedics arrived and attempted to revive Kye, continuing their efforts at the hospital, but he was dead.At the hospital, a sobbing Randall claimed he believed he had done CPR incorrectly.“I realise now that I was pushing too low on his stomach,” he told them.“But I did it wrong. I did it wrong.”A post-mortem examination found horrific injuries inconsistent with his explanation.Kye was found to have fractured ribs, injuries to his bowel, a “pulped” liver so damaged that “pieces of (it) lay scattered in his abdomen”, a torn stomach wall and a spleen that was “cleaved into two”.The abdominal aorta was also torn in two places.“The experts said that misapplied CPR could not have caused the injuries,” a Court of Appeal finding stated.Randall maintained his lie right until the eve of his murder trial, when he agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter, admitting that he had punched his baby in the stomach as Kye lay crying in his rocker.“Having betrayed his wife by his philandering, he compounded that betrayal by deceiving her about how her baby boy had died,” the judgment said.
The court heard Randall lashed out at his son out of frustration because his wife had been ill and he’d been denied a transfer to another police station.“One searches for an explanation for this crime, or at least for some motivating factor, that might make this tragedy understandable,” the judgment said.“A more negligible and petty series of frustrations leading to killing can hardly be conceived.”He was sentenced to nine years jail, with a non-parole period of five years. Randall has applied for release and becomes eligible on January 30.Debra has previously said her former husband’s five-year non-parole period was “absolutely disgusting”.“He should be locked away for life,” she said.She told The Courier-Mail she worried for her and her family’s safety should Randall be released.“Our future is in (the parole board’s) hands,” Debra said.
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