A FATHER has been jailed for 30 months for killing his baby daughter.

Imtiaz Ul-Haq Najam, 37, threw his two-month-old daughter across the room when she would not stop crying, a court heard.

The tot suffered a 10cm long fracture to her skull when her head hit the uncovered arm of a settee on the evening of May 20 last year.

The girl was rushed to hospital, but died a week later at Guy's Hospital in London.

At first Najam denied hurting the child, but last month while facing a charge of murder he finally admitted the abuse and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Before then he had told police he had accidentally dropped baby Sara as he tried to comfort her.

Najam, a trained engineer from Pakistan who sacrificed his career to move to Britain with his wife, wept uncontrollably throughout the hearing at Lewes Crown Court yesterday.

His wife Lubna Farnaz, who gave birth to another daughter on November 29, was in court and spoke as a character witness for her husband.

The public gallery was packed with friends and family of Najam and the court heard that more than 100 letters plus a video from relatives in Pakistan had been sent in pleading clemency.

Christopher Kinch, prosecuting, said that Najam had come to Britain in 1996 and worked as a warehouseman at Gatwick airport near the family's home in Beckett Lane, Langton Green, Crawley.

Mr Kinch said that Najam told police that nothing untoward had happened on the evening in question, but he was arrested on suspicion of causing GBH.

Mr Kinch said: "Sara woke at 9.30pm crying, Mr Najam attempted to, but was unable to, feed her. He tried but was unable to comfort her and she continued to cry, preventing him from picking his wife up from work.

"At 10.30pm Mr Najam, shortly before his wife Lubna returned from work, in a momentary loss of self control, threw Sara away from himself towards the settee."

Defending, Michael Mansfield QC, pleaded for leniency. "I'm of the opinion that the circumstances out of which the event took place are not likely to occur again."

He said that Najam was suffering psychological exhaustion at the time of the tragedy and had no background of temper or violence.

He said: "This is not the case of a family who have been been uncaring, who have had a number of children and have been neglectful."

He added that Najam visited his daughter's grave regularly. Lubna Farnaz, his wife, told Mr Justice Potts: "He had always been a loving father and a faithful husband. He is a loving and caring husband and always looks after me."

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