A thug who nearly killed his one-month-old son by punching him in the face after downing a bottle of Jack Daniels has been jailed for ten years.
David Tilici, 29, launched the appalling attack when his partner had left their hotel room in Liverpool city centre to go to McDonald’s on December 11 last year.
The child’s mother watched on in horror when she saw his bloodied face in a video call before rushing to help him.
Members of staff even feared that the baby had died due to the severity of his injuries.
The four-week-old boy was rushed to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital after sustaining ‘significant blunt force head trauma’, the trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard.
This included ‘substantial’ bruising to the head and face and bleeding from the mouth, while a subsequent CT scan revealed that the baby had suffered multiple bleeds on the brain.
David Tilici (pictured) nearly killed his one-month-old son by punching him in the face after downing a bottle of Jack Daniels
Jamie Baxter, prosecuting, described how consultants concluded that these injuries were ‘not accidental’ and ‘as a result of more than one impact’.
Jurors were told that Tilici and his partner checked into the Campanile hotel on Queens Dock at around 6.30pm on the day of the attack.
Staff reported that the baby ‘appeared to be fine’ and had no injuries at this stage.
The defendant left in order to buy milk around an hour later and also returned with a bottle of honey-flavoured Jack Daniels and two cans of Red Bull.
Tilici drank the entire the bottle of whisky during the course of the evening and began arguing with his girlfriend, accusing her of ‘being unfaithful by looking at other men’.
The 29-year-old, from Luton, then reportedly ‘got really angry’ at her and began hitting her in the head with the back of his palm and calling her names such as ‘w****’ and ‘b****’.
She later left her boyfriend and baby in the hotel in order to get food from McDonald’s, telling him ‘don’t wake the baby up’ as she left.
Tilici gave her his mobile phone video and called her via Facebook Messenger from the hotel room using a tablet computer in order to ‘keep tabs on her’.
But, while waiting for her meal as she stood near to the counter, she began to hear the baby ‘screaming’ and ‘two loud bangs’.
She then asked the father, who was not visible on the camera at the time, ‘what happened, why is he crying so bad and why is the baby awake?’.
However, Tilici merely replied: ‘Oh, he’s just hungry.’
When the mother pointed out that he had been fed immediately before she left the hotel, he added ‘no, no, it’s fine’ then claimed: ‘I just put my can on the table. That’s the bangs, where it come from.’
As the mother returned to the hotel, she demanded to see the baby on the video and was able to see that his ‘face was blue and that he had blood coming out of his mouth’.
She then ran back to their room before taking the child to the reception area. Tilici followed her downstairs and said in Romanian: ‘You’re gonna put me in jail. They’re gonna come and get me.’
Jurors were told that Tilici and his partner checked into the Campanile hotel on Queens Dock (pictured) at around 6.30pm on the day of the attack
But he also continued to insist that ‘nothing happened, I just fed him’. The baby’s injuries were so stark that one hotel employee feared he may have died.
Tilici then began ‘behaving erratically’, including shouting ‘give me my baby’ and falling to his knees and pretending to faint.
His son meanwhile was described as being in a critical condition and ‘falling in and out of consciousness’.
Attending shortly before 10.30pm, one medic asked him ‘whether he had dropped the baby by accident’. But Tilici, who ‘smelled strongly of alcohol’, replied ‘no’ and threw himself to the floor.
Medical staff noted that the youngster had a ‘purple face, was silent and had reduced consciousness’.
On arrival at the hospital doctors found that there was an ‘absence of a plausible accidental explanation’.
The baby had no injuries to the sides of the head, ears, neck or below the neckline ‘which might be expected if he had been dropped or fallen’.
Tilici, who had one previous conviction for shoplifting in 2020, represented himself in court at his sentencing hearing today.
Assisted by a Romanian interpreter, he told the judge: ‘The child is growing and he has no fractures on his head, no injuries on his eyes and nothing wrong with him.. He is healthy.
‘Your honour, I am 29 years old and I’ve not had any problems with violence – not in England, not in Romania or in any other country. I have to be punished for what happened. It didn’t happen with my consent.
‘It wouldn’t happen if I wasn’t so drunk. It isn’t an excuse, but I don’t think it would happen if I wasn’t so drunk. When I get out, I will be a better parent and a better man.’
Tilici was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm and was jailed for 10 years and was handed restraining orders preventing him from contacting his former partner and baby indefinitely.
Sentencing, Charlotte Crangle said: ‘She told the police that you had assaulted her earlier in the relationship and been incredibly controlling.
‘She felt that you isolated her from her family and friends and threatened her with extreme violence because of your jealousy over a previously relationship she had had. It was clear when she gave evidence that she was, at the time, in significant fear of you because of the control you exerted over her.
‘He was a tiny baby. He was just over two-and-a-half kilos. It appears you became angry during the course of the day. You were accusing her of flirting with other males, even when she was crossing the road.
‘You then consumed all of that whisky in a short space of time. This resulted in you becoming very drunk. You then became aggressive and abusive towards her.
Pictured: Liverpool Crown Court where the trial was heard
‘You were calling her names and beating her around the head while your son slept in the bed next to you. She managed to calm matters and left the hotel to get some food.
‘She had fed, changed and settled the baby before she left and had no reason to be concerned about leaving him in the care of his father. You insisted that she remain on a video call to you, no doubt so you could keep an eye on her.
‘She could not see what was going on in the room, but then heard two loud bangs and then her son screaming. It was clear that it was at this point that you, in drink, had lost your temper with your son, as you had earlier with your partner, and struck out at him.
‘The doctors both agreed that there must have been significant blunt force trauma to cause those injuries. It was clear that there was something badly wrong with him. She thought her baby boy was dead, as did the hotel staff.
‘He was silent. He was blue in the face. You came down to the reception and wanted to take your son from the staff, but they had to hide him in the kitchen area from you.
‘Anybody looking at the photographs of the injuries you caused to your baby son cannot fail to be distressed. You denied causing the injuries under police interview and at trial and clearly made up a story that he had fallen off the bed. Thankfully, it seems that he will probably make a full recovery from his injuries.’
