General
Joseph McDonald jailed for nine years for killing seven-week-old son in ‘fit of anger’
A Victorian father who fatally shook his baby son in a “burst of anger” fuelled by an addiction to cannabis and video games has been jailed for nine years.
Key points:
- The sentencing judge said Joseph McDonald had inflicted “irreparable pain and grief” on his son Lucas’s family
- Lucas died from catastrophic brain injuries days after his father attacked him
- For days, McDonald did not tell the doctors treating Lucas what he had done
Joseph McDonald, 23, was living with his partner Samantha Duckmanton and their two sons when he forcefully shook their son, Lucas, in October last year.
Ms Duckmanton was in another room of their home in Benalla, in Victoria’s north-east, at the time.
After the seven-month-old released a “high-pitched cry”, McDonald…
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