A MAN who switched off a newborn baby’s vital medical equipment as she lay sick in hospital has been jailed for 33 months.
James Tracey silenced the alarm on a monitor that the tiny two-day-old girl was attached to.
She had been born with breathing problems and was kept in an incubator at a specialist unit at Glasgow’s Princess Royal maternity hospital.
Medics were keeping checks on her oxygen levels and an alarm would sound if they dropped.
Tracey could have put the infant’s life at risk but became annoyed when nurses told him to stop tampering with the equipment.
It also emerged that the 32-year-old battered another child while supposedly babysitting him.
Tracey pled guilty to culpably and recklessly switching off the monitor to the danger of the baby’s life.
He also admitted assaulting a two-year-old boy by throwing him in a shower, banging his head and hitting him.
Sheriff Paul Crozier jailed Tracey for 33 months at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Tracey had gone to visit the baby in hospital on October 5, 2015.
She had respiratory issues and had been moved to a neo-natal unit where doctors were checking her condition.
Prosecutor Adele MacDonald said that, during Tracey’s visit, nurses spotted him touching the equipment.
Miss MacDonald went on: “They noticed that when the saturation monitor sounded he pressed the mute button.
“He was told not to do that and became agitated and was removed by security staff.”
No harm was caused to the child.
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