'Serial Liar' Murdered His Own Baby Granddaughter

A 45-year-old man has been jailed for 25 years for murdering his five-week-old granddaughter Amelia Jones in South Wales.

Prosecutors said Mark Jones killed the tiny baby because he did not like the infant's father - Jones' daughter's boyfriend.

Jones had tricked his daughter Sarah into thinking he was ill for more than a year before his brutal attack on the baby at her home in Pontnewydd.He claimed Amelia's death had been a tragic accident after he dropped her on two separate nights in November 2012.Doctors found Amelia had suffered a catastrophic bleed to the brain as well as fractures to her skull, ribs and leg.Jones had used illness to worm his way into Ms Jones' life - pretending to pass out in front of her after telling her he had taken "anti-cancer drugs" and phoning her up masquerading as a doctor.But it was all an act. When Ms Jones went to the cinema, he volunteered to babysit and later attacked Amelia.Newport Crown Court heard the defendant called his daughter first, rather than dial 999, after Amelia stopped breathing.She died 48 hours later in hospital - aged just 41 days old.Experts believe she suffered a serious blow to the head and was vigorously shaken.To make it look like he was indeed ill, Jones had hobbled around on a crutch with what appeared to be plastic tubes sticking out of his chest.Newport Crown Court was told that Jones was a serial liar who could not be trusted.During the impact statement Ms Jones read to the court, she said her life had been totally destroyed - and it had given her other children nightmares.She said one of them had asked: "If grandad gets out of prison, will we have to move? I'm afraid he will come and kill me next."To make matters worse, in the midst of her grief, her other children were taken off her by social services while a police investigation into her baby's death went ahead."My other three were taken away from me and I did not see them for another three weeks after Amelia had died," she said."I was even arrested, accused of killing Amelia. My life had been destroyed."Three years before Amelia's death, Ms Jones had begun a relationship with Ian Skillern who later became the father of her child.Jones had been absent for a long period of Ms Jones's life, but in 2011 she tracked him down to mend their broken relationship.But Jones did not like Mr Skillern and faked the illness in a bid to ingratiate himself with his daughter, the court was told, eventually killing the baby she had had with him.Judge Wyn Williams said Jones had shown no remorse for his "wicked and despicable" actions.He said: "It may well be that you are never released from prison or if you are, you will be a very old man."